Under 21 International – Italians No Match For Ireland.

A hat-trick of tries from UCC flyer right wing, Richard Lane helped the Ireland Under 21s to a comfortable 33-0 victory over Italy in Thomond Park on Friday evening.

Following their defeat to England, Under-21 coach Mark McCall made four main changes to the side for the game against Italy. Full-back Tommy Bowe and centre Glen Telford were both omitted through injury while Wasps scrumhalf Robbie Shaw was brought in for Tomas O’Leary while flanker Brendan O’Connor passed a late fitness test to win his place in the starting line-up.

Ireland set out their stall right from the kick off spreading the ball wide and had the visitors on the hind foot with Lane scoring his first try after just five minutes after the Queen’s outhalf Gareth Steenson had supplied the scoring pass for Lane to score under the posts. Steenson converted and the Irish were on their way.

They dominated in the possession stakes but over-anxiousness foiled them on several occasions and they had to wait until the 38th minute before extending their lead when prop Keith Doyle scored from a rolling maul. Steenson added the points for a 14 point interval lead.

They stretched their lead right from the restart Lane rounding two defenders to score his second and Steenson landing the difficult conversion (21-0).

Three minutes later Trinity number eight Jamie Heaslip scored from another rolling maul in the right hand corner and midway through the half, Lane gathered a loose ball and sprinted 50 metres to round off his tally.

Ireland: A Finn (Dolphin); R Lane (UCC), J Hearty (Blackrock), B O’Donnell (UL Bohemians), P McKenzie (Loughborough); G Stenson (QUB), R Shaw (Wasps); J Wickham (Clontarf), D Fogarty (Cork Con), K Doyle (UCD), D Gannon (Blackrock), S O’Connor (Cork Con), B O’Connor (Cork Con), O Hennessy (Dungannon), J Heaslip (TCD).
Replacements: T O’Leary (Cork Con) for Shaw and D O’Brien (Old Belvedere) for Hennessy (49 mins); N McComb (Dundee HSFP) for S O’Connor (60 mins); S Bennet (Bath) for Doyle and M Clancy (Loughborough) for Steenson (66 mins); C Geoghegan (UCD) for Gogarty (70 mins); G Stafford (Lansdowne) for O’Donnell (72 mins).

Italy: A Galante; L Nitoglia, A Chillon, N Pavin, V Santillo; A Marcato, G Tonilatti; L Milani, F Grosso, F Staibano, T Reato, V Bernabo, L Ghiraldini, E Leonardi, A Zanni.
Replacements: R Assandri for Galante and A Donati for Milani (44 mins); R Barbieri for Reato (59 mins); C Spadaro for Pavin (62 mins). M Pitton for Toniolatti (64 mins).

Referee: N Owens (WRU).