Green Wave Sweeps Dexcom Stadium As Ireland Beat Italy

A record crowd brought the Green Wave to Dexcom Stadium as Ireland beat Italy, scoring nine tries, to secure their first win of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations Championship.

The atmosphere in the Dexcom Stadium was just what this great occasion wished for with the 9,206 in attendance. For so long, rugby out west was dismissed given the success of the other three provinces. Connacht have managed to build their own success in the past ten years including a Pro 14 title. The Sportsground was something a fortress for Connacht and Ireland got the opportunity to start a similar story this afternoon where they played some brilliant free-flowing attacking rugby.

The Irish started red hot with Emily Lane scoring after she took a quick tap penalty. She showed great strength as she carried Elisa Giordano with her to get over the line. Italy struck back straight away through Vittoria Vecchini on the back of a driving maul from a lineout. Ireland used the same tactic three minutes later with Aoife Wafer scoring from the back of the maul.

Galway girl Béibhinn Parsons brought the biggest cheer of the evening when she scored in the corner after a long pass out wide from Stacey Flood. Dannah O’Brien was clearly on form with the boot also as she slotted her third conversion of the afternoon from the sideline.

Ireland wrapped up the bonus point inside twenty-two minutes when Robyn O’Connor capped her first cap with a brilliant try in the corner. There was no lapse in the Irish attack as they were intent on punishing the Italians. Parsons grabbed her second of the afternoon after a perfect pass from Lane lined up the winger to overpower Aura Muzzo and score.

The Italians weren’t going to lie down either as Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi answered straight back with a try of the championship contender as she fended off the tackles of Campbell and O’Brien to sprint home from inside her own ten metre line.

Ellena Perry soon increased the Irish lead once more when she managed to just get the ball down despite the best Italian efforts. They decided to put their own nominee up for Try of the Championship where offloads were a plenty between Parsons, Flood and Wafer before Parsons had the final say and she sealed her hat-trick on the half-time hooter to give the girls in green a 45-10 lead at the break.

Italy brought on their experienced bench options at the break with Turani and Duca. Ireland’s mindset showed no signs of changing though as Moloney-MacDonald crashed over for another try two minutes after the restart to bring the Irish up to fifty.

The Italians continued their courageous effort when Ostuni Minuzzi offloaded perfectly to substitute Veronica Madia who had already made a sizable impact to touch down for the Azzurri’s third of the evening.

It was always going to be difficult for the second half to maintain the pace of the first but tries were still coming when Brittany Hogan’s hard work was rewarded with a try. Italy had the final say of the evening when Alyssa D’inca secured the bonus point for the away side in the corner and getting their first championship point of the campaign.