Ireland qualified for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals by squeezing past Italy 16-9 in a tight match on Sunday that ensured the Italians are to miss out — again.
The victory, aptly described by Ireland coach Joe Schmidt as “ugly,” also lifted France into the last eight, and confirmed their match next weekend at Millennium Stadium as the Pool D decider.
The loser in Cardiff is likely to face defending champions New Zealand in the quarter-finals.
Photo: Reuters
A near full-strength Irish team racked up 94 points in their first two matches and were expected to dispatch an Italy side that fired only in spurts at the World Cup in a loss to France and a narrow win over Canada.
The Italy squad, equally desperate to win to stay in quarter-finals contention, were roused even more by the first appearance of fit-again No. 8 Sergio Parisse, who led by example. They held possession for long periods, disrupted Ireland and, at 10-6 down in the second half, missed a try by a matter of centimeters.
Despite easily their best display, Italy were condemned to yet another exit in the pool stage. They has never made the last eight.
“This was a missed chance,” Italy coach Jacques Brunel said.
Ireland quickly realized they were in for a tough afternoon when Italy had all of the possession for the first six minutes, giving it up only in Ireland’s quarter for not releasing. Italy center Gonzalo Garcia limped off, and Ireland hit back straight away with a break and resulting penalty goal to Jonathan Sexton.
Italy went through the phases again from a lineout maul and forced a penalty to level the score.
Midway through the half, Italy had a lineout near their try-line and Ireland lock Iain Henderson stole it at the front. No. 8 Jamie Heaslip speared off, Sexton ran to the line and his inside pass hit Robbie Henshaw in a gap, with Keith Earls on hand for the offload on the line.
Earls’ eighth World Cup try separated him from Brian O’Driscoll as Ireland’s all-time record-holder in the tournament.
Sexton converted, but Italy counterpart Tommaso Allan cut the lead to 10-6 with his second penalty.
Both captains overlooked penalties from close range to go for attacking lineouts, and both failed in the face of outstanding defenses, led in the match by Italy’s Simone Favaro, and Ireland’s Henshaw.
In the second half, Italy built another attack, but gave the wrong guy the overlap, lock Josh Furno. He was taken into touch in the left corner, centimeters from the line, by a desperate covering tackle from Irish flanker Peter O’Mahony.
Italy held the ball for the first 10 minutes for the scant reward of Allan’s third penalty.
Ireland led by only one, and the tension in the crowd of 53,187, most of them Irish, was high.
However, two penalty kicks by Sexton in the space of four minutes for 16-9 relaxed Ireland and deflated Italy.
Parisse and Allan were immediately brought off to freshen Italy, but they could not sustain another attack, even while Ireland, still struggling to find a hole in Italy’s lines, played the last seven minutes down a man. O’Mahony was sin-binned for leading with his shoulder into a ruck.
It proved to be Ireland’s day, but in many ways it was not.
In the day’s other game, Pool C saw Argentina take a big step toward reaching the quarter-finals by beating Tonga 45-16.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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