Sports Digest: Italian job done, Wales awaits the Irish team at the Rugby World Cup

Also GAA Shorts, Athony Daly stays and Alan Gaffney impressed

Flankers Sean O’Brien delivered another Man of the Match performance as Ireland booked their place in the last eight at the Rugby World Cup -- then declared the job is only half done.

The Carlow native was magnificent from start to finish as Ireland produced a storming second half performance to beat Italy 36-6 in Dunedin on Sunday.

Two tries from Keith Earls and another from captain Brian O’Driscoll, all after the break, ensured Ireland were never in any real trouble in their final pool game as they maintained their 100% record.

“We feel good. We’ve done our job and topped the group, but this squad of players isn’t happy with that,” said Leinster star O’Brien.
 

“We want to do bigger and better things than this. There’s way more to come from this team. We said after the second pool game we’re halfway there and now we’ll say again, we’re only halfway there.

“There’s no point thinking we’ve achieved something now because we’ve done what we’ve done.

Obviously it’s good, but we still want more and Wales is next on the list. Hopefully we can take it up a notch.

“There’s a big week ahead of us and we’ll certainly be holding nothing back.”

O’Brien was just one of many heroes on a night when Ireland, 9-6 up at the break thanks to three Ronan O’Gara penalties, kept the Italians scoreless in a breathtaking second period.

The much vaunted Italy scrum did cause the Irish some early problems but once Cian Healy turned on the heat in the front row those around him took up the mantle.

Paul O’Connell was awesome in the second row and O’Brien and Stephen Ferris powerful in the flanker roles as the Green Machine took complete control.

Whatever Declan Kidney said in the dressing-room at the break clearly worked as there was only one team on the pitch in that second 40 minutes.

An O’Gara penalty put Ireland six points up before O’Driscoll’s sublime finish, set up by D’Arcy and Bowe, for the game’s first try in the 48th minute served notice of what was to come.

The game was all but over when Ferris sent Earls in for the second try just five minutes later. Earls then added his second and Ireland’s third try in the final minutes but by then the game was well and truly over as a contest.

The Welsh, hugely impressive in recent weeks, are next up for Ireland in the quarterfinals, a match captain O’Driscoll is looking forward to.

“It’s going to be another great challenge,” said O’Driscoll. “It’s been very close in recent years and it’ll be the team that turns up on the day that goes into the semifinals.

“We’re delighted with this Italy win. We knew we needed it and I’m glad we were able to deliver in the second-half aided by what has been the best crowd we’ve played in front of so far.”
 
Kearney’s Call

​
Nster.com