Joe Schmidt's Ireland side earned a bonus-point win that leaves them third in the standings on nine points, one point behind England and three adrift of leaders Wales. Ireland started strongly when Quinn Roux and Jacob Stockdale crossed either side of a Tommaso Allan penalty for Italy, who rallied as tries from Edoardo Padovani and Luca Morisi combined with another Allan penalty gave them the halftime lead. Credit to Italy, they made it very tough at the ruck area and put us under pressure." "We know how difficult it is to come to Rome,” added man of the match Peter O’Mahony after captaining Ireland for the first time. Italy are without a Six Nations win since beating Scotland in 2015, a Championship record run of 20 losses in a row, while their last home victory came against Ireland in 2013.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 24, 2019 19:52 UTC