Johnny Sexton James Lowe Andy Farrell James Ryan Ross Byrne Paolo Garbisi Stephen Varney France Italy Scotland Ireland Rome Six Nations Rugby Johnny Sexton James Lowe Andy Farrell James Ryan Ross Byrne Paolo Garbisi Stephen Varney France Italy Scotland Ireland Rome

Ireland beat spirited Italy to keep Six Nations Grand Slam bid alive

news24.com

Ireland's hunt for a Six Nations Grand Slam is on after the world's top-ranked team overcame Italy 34-20 in an entertaining encounter in Rome on Saturday.Mack Hansen scored two tries with James Ryan, Hugo Kennan and Bundee Aki also dotting down to ensure that the Irish have taken 15 points from their three matches in this year's tournament.Ross Byrne, who played in place of captain Johnny Sexton, kicked 14 points in a win which for long spells looked far from guaranteed.Andy Farrell's side are five points clear at the top of the Six Nations standings ahead of closest rivals Scotland's showdown against France at the Stade de France on Sunday.Italy stay on a single point in the table, one in front of troubled Wales who host England later on Saturday.Azzurri coach Kieran Crowley and the country's rugby federation said before the tournament that they were targeting two wins this year but they now have their work cut out if they want to reach that objective.Grand Slam still on for Ireland! #GuinnessSixNations #ITAvIRE pic.twitter.com/cAmu0V4po5Italy host Wales, beaten by the Azzurri at the end of last year's Six Nations, in a fortnight's time before travelling to Murrayfield to take on Scotland a week later as they try to avoid yet another wooden spoon.Crowley's young team caused Ireland problems with their own expansive style of rugby and scored tries through Stephen Varney and Pierre Bruno, with the returning flyhalf Paolo Garbisi kicking 10 points.Ireland made six changes from the team which beat France two weeks ago and had to battle their way past the Italians, but looked like they were going to run away with the match early on as James Lowe just failed to dot down under pressure from Ange Capuozzo.Seconds later Lowe was

Related News
This year's Six Nations Championship comes to a climax this weekend with Ireland and France still able to clinch the title.
The Ireland trio of Ryan Baird, Jamison Gibson-Park and Robbie Henshaw will make their first starts of this year’s Six Nations on Saturday against England. The lock Baird and centre Henshaw replace the injured Iain Henderson and Garry Ringrose after last week’s bruising 22-7 round-four win in Scotland.
Ireland kept themselves on course for a first Grand Slam since 2018 as they ended Scotland’s Triple Crown dream with an impressive second-half performance in Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations showdown at BT Murrayfield.
Ireland took another step towards the Grand Slam with an incredibly hard-fought and costly victory over Scotland.
We cannot call them champions yet, but Ireland are the best team in the world – and rarely have they looked it more. It is difficult to imagine any side facing down the setbacks they did here at Murrayfield – the home of one of the other better teams in the world – and responding quite so emphatically, indeed effortlessly.

Latest News

Change privacy settings
This page might use cookies if your analytics vendor requires them.