Ireland 33-17 Italy: Grand Slam winners begin World Cup warm-up series with solid home win

Ireland ran successful fie tries against Italy

Ireland began their three-match World Cup warm-up programme with a coagulated 33-17 triumph implicit Italy successful Dublin.

The hosts' tempo dropped successful the 2nd fractional but they stayed up done a Cian Healy effort and different from Doris.

Italy's second-half tries came from Lorenzo Pani and Tommaso Menoncello.

With Ireland caput manager Andy Farrell examining his 42-man squad earlier helium reducing it to 33 for France successful September, Ulster hooker Tom Stewart made his debut from the seat on with Leinster's Ciaran Frawley and Munster's Calvin Nash.

Ulster skipper Iain Henderson wore the planetary armband for the 2nd clip successful his vocation and produced a beardown show earlier going disconnected successful the 56th minute.

His nine team-mate Jacob Stockdale won his archetypal headdress for 2 years and looked bully successful flashes successful the archetypal half, peculiarly erstwhile making a large aerial instrumentality that astir helped make a try, but helium volition possibly consciousness helium should person released wide to Stewart precocious connected erstwhile helium chose to spell for the effort himself and was tackled.

Doris enactment successful a man-of-the-match show successful the fig 7 jersey, Joe McCarthy impressed successful the 2nd enactment and Jack Crowley did thing to dent his chances of deputising astatine fly-half if Jonny Sexton is unavailable astatine immoderate stage.

One wounded interest for Ireland and caput manager Farrell was the show of Jack Conan with a protective footwear connected his ft aft the match, but the aboriginal indications from the subordinate was that the wounded is not a large one.

Ireland turn into crippled aft dilatory start

Ireland took a portion to play their mode into the match, looking strangely subdued and somewhat disjointed successful the aboriginal stages arsenic visiting full-back Tommaso Allan opened the scoring for Italy with a second-minute penalty.

The location broadside had a bully accidental of crossing for a effort successful the 5th infinitesimal erstwhile stand-in skipper Henderson made a bully interruption but a handling mistake a fewer yards from the enactment saw him suffer possession nether pressure.

Farrell's men soon began to find their bushed and scored their archetypal effort connected 13 minutes erstwhile Kilcoyne drove implicit the enactment with assistance from Conan and Doris aft a tap-and-go penalty, with Sexton's lawman Crowley adding the conversion.

Ireland were good successful power of the crippled by the clip they notched their 2nd effort conscionable earlier the half-hour-mark - and besides had a one-man vantage aft Italy prop Toa Halafihi was shown a yellowish paper for unsafe play.

It was their well-oiled line-out maul that proved effectual erstwhile again for the 2nd try, with skipper Henderson collecting the shot good from the throw-in and Doris driving implicit from adjacent scope for his 4th planetary try.

Doris was past instrumental successful making the 3rd effort arsenic helium delivered a good tackle and applied beardown unit astatine the ruck, allowing Ulster centre McCloskey to capitalise and drawback an opportunistic try, which saw Crawley support his 100% grounds with his 3rd conversion.

It brought an extremity to a fractional which had started good for the visitors, but successful which they were seldom allowed clip to play the high-tempo possession benignant of rugby that they similar to play.

Ireland: O'Brien; Earls, Henshaw, McCloskey, Stockdale; Crowley, Casey; Kilcoyne, Herring, O'Toole; Henderson (capt), McCarthy; Baird, Doris, Conan.

Replacements: Stewart, Healy, Furlong, Beirne, Prendergast, Blade, Frawley, Nash.

Italy: Allan; Odogwu, Brez, Menoncello, Ioane; Garbisi, Varney; Fischetti, Nicotera, Riccioni; Lamb, Ruzza (capt); Negri, Zuliani, Halafihi.

Replacements: Bigi, Buonfiglio, Ferrari, Cannone, Lamaro, Cannone, Fusco, Pani.

More to follow.