Ireland 46 Italy 7
Brian O’Driscoll has demonstrated impeccable timing throughout his career, so it hardly constituted a surprise that on the afternoon that he became the most capped player (140) in the history of the sport, breaking the great Australian scrumhalf George Gregan’s mark, he produced a performance commensurate with the occasion.
Forget about sentimentality in the decision to award O’Driscoll the man-of the- match accolade, it was thoroughly merited on the strength of his performance. His fingerprints could be found on three of Ireland’s seven tries, while there were turnovers, tackles and line-breaks to energise a crowd that had come to pay homage.
All hail the chief: a marvel as captain and leader by example
Ireland to do it for that bloke O’Driscoll
My mate Driccy down to earth with a God-given talent
He might not be as quick as he was but there is nothing shabby about his other faculties, particularly his appreciation of space on a rugby pitch, how to create it and exploit it: today, he selflessly put others through gaps or sent them scampering to the whitewash.
When Ireland were periodically becalmed in terms of momentum, or struggling to escape the shackles of a vigilant and in the opening 40 minutes largely effective and well organised Italian defence, he invariably found a way.
The standing ovation he received when departing the pitch on 62 minutes to be replaced by the excellent Fergus McFadden was greeted by a thunderous roar, the Irish supporters first opportunity on the afternoon to thank a player who has brought great honour and honours to the green jersey.
The roar of approbation that greeted his every touch underlined the desperation of the crowd to celebrate his final home game with Ireland at every turn and he gave them enough encouragement. In some respects cheering him on distracted the crowd from what was a fitful performance from the home side.
The first half was a curious affair from an Irish perspective. There was no shortage of perspiration, the invention was there, width too, but the precision was missing. Small things underlined the adventure.
Ireland’s passing while crisp, didn’t engage defenders with the result that the Italian blue line drifted onto the final ball carrier, smothering him and this meant that the home side had to commit bodies to rucks to try and rescue possession.
The knock-on effect was that Ireland were short of numbers when they looked to shift possession; it served to narrow Ireland’s avenues of attack. They spent a large part of the opening quarter attacking around the fringes in cluttered corridors.
Players made mistakes, some uncharacteristic, some borne of trying to force the issue at a time when Ireland were struggling to translate their dominance on the pitch to the scoreboard. There was a cornucopia of mistakes, handling errors, pushed passes, missed tackles, lateral running and questionable option taking.
Yet for all these errors it could not distract from the fact that Ireland were dominant at set-piece, excelling in scrum, lineout and driving maul – particularly after the departure of Martin Castrogiovanni on six minutes – and that an abundance of possession was a decent platform if they could just improve their accuracy a tad.
Article source: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby/top-rugby-stories/british-and-irish-lions-spy-fear-claims-dismissed-1-2961849
Brian O"Driscoll given fitting send-off by Ireland
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