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Schmidt: Ireland go home with win but not the 'performance'


Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt
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Joe Schmidt was unimpressed with Ireland’s performance as they were forced to rally to claim a 26-16 bonus-point Six Nations win over Italy at Stadio Olimpico.

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The defending champions trailed 16-12 at half-time in Rome after a rampant Italy side responded to Quinn Roux and Jacob Stockdale tries with scores from Edoardo Padovani and Luca Morisi.

Ireland were never fluent in the Eternal City, but ground the Azzurri down in the second half, Keith Earls and Conor Murray crossing to seal maximum points.

The 2018 Grand Slam winners are three points behind leaders Wales with two matches remaining, but head coach Schmidt warned they must showed a marked improvement.

“The bottom line is you want the win and the bonus point. So we’ve got the five points and we’ll go home happy with the points haul but certainly not with the performance.” said the New Zealander.

“Italy put a lot of pressure on, they made the ruck very tough for Conor and on the back of that when they got opportunities they broke very quickly and put us under pressure. We’ve got to be more accurate than that.”

Stand-in captain Peter O’Mahony echoed Schmidt’s sentiments.

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“We knew how difficult it is to come to Rome. It’s an incredibly physical battle and they are a super rugby team. They put us under the pump and we expected that.” he told ITV Sport.

“There is certainly stuff we can do better, and I know a lot is expected of us, but five points away from home is good because it is difficult to win on the road in the Six Nations.

“We needed a bit more accuracy in the second half and we were forcing a few things, so we had to revert to our game plan and get through some phases. We need to improve on some of the good stuff and the things we need to get better at.”

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NoLongerARuck 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

The Six Nations produced so many compelling games and so much of action packed moments that you can only conclude that its the best international comp out there at the moment except for a world cup. If Wales improve it will be even better especially given the strides Italy have made in recent times. The Rugby Championship is now taking a hiatus in a year it really should be building toward something better which is terrible considering the competition was so tight last year. The Nations Champs promises much but one gets the feeling that the 6 Nations teams will not be at their peak given its at the end of their long season. In terms of rugby quality and entertainment Id rather watch the 6 Nations over everything else other than a world cup right now. The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field. In terms of entertainment the North wins. In terms of winning? They are making strides but until they win another world cup or get a team to rank number 1 again for an extended time again they cant really say they are better than the South.

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