| IRELAND 19 | V | ITALY 3 | |||
| COMPETITION: 6 Nations International Championship | |||||
| VENUE: Lansdown Road, Dublin | DATE: 20 March, 2004 | SPECTATORS: 49, 250 | |||
| REFEREE: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand) | HALFTIME: 12-0 | ||||
| SCORERS: | SCORERS: | ||||
| TRIES: O'Kelly, O'Driscoll, Horgan | TRIES: | ||||
| CONVERSIONS: | CONVERSIONS: | ||||
| PENALTY GOALS: O'Gara (2) | PENALTY GOALS: De Marigny | ||||
| DROPPED GOALS: | DROPPED GOALS: | ||||
| 15 | Girvan Dempsey | Leinster | 15 | Gonzalo Canale (22) | Benetton Treviso RFC |
| 14 | Shane Horgan | Leinster | 14 | Nicola Mazzucato | Calvisano RFC |
| 13 | Gordon D'Arcy (22) | Leinster | 13 | Cristian Stoica | Montpellier RFC, France |
| 12 | Brian O'Driscoll (Cap) | Leinster | 12 | Matteo Barbini (21) | Petraca Padova RFC |
| 11 | Geordan Murphy | Leicester RFC, England | 11 | Denis Dallan | Treviso RFC |
| 10 | Ronan O'Gara (20) | Munster | 10 | Roland De Marigny | Overmach Parma RFC |
| 9 | Peter Stringer (21) | Munster | 9 | Paul Griffen (20) | Calvisano RFC |
| 8 | Anthony Foley | Munster | 8 | Scott Palmer (16t) | Benetton Treviso RFC |
| 7 | Keith Gleeson (19) | Leinster | 7 | Aaron Persico | Leeds RFC, England |
| 6 | Simon Easterby | Llanelly RFC, Wales | 6 | Andrea De Rossi (Cap) | Calvisano RFC |
| 5 | Donnacha O'Callaghan (18) | Munster | 5 | Marco Bortolami | Padova RFC |
| 4 | Malcolm O'Kelly | Leinster | 4 | Carlo Checchinato (18) | Calvisano RFC |
| 3 | John Hayes | Munster | 3 | Martin Castrogiovanni | Calvisano RFC |
| 2 | Shane Byrne (16) | Leinster | 2 | Fabio Ongaro | Benetton Treviso RFC |
| 1 | Reggie Corrigan (17) | Leinster | 1 | Andrea Lo Cicero (17) | Lazio and Primavera RFC |
| 16 | Frankie Sheahan (2) | Munster | 16 | Carlo Festuccia (8t) | Gran Parma RFC |
| 17 | Marcus Horan (1) | Munster | 17 | Salvatore Perugini (1) | Calvisano RFC |
| 18 | Gary Longwell (5) | Ulster | 18 | Santiago Dellape (4) | Benetton Treviso RFC |
| 19 | Victor Costello (7) | Leinster | 19 | Roberto Mandelli | Calvisano RFC |
| 20 | David Humphreys (10) | Ulster | 20 | Simon Picone (9) | Benetton Treviso RFC |
| 21 | Guy Easterby (9) | Rotherham RFC, England | 21 | Andrea Masi (12) | Viadana RFC |
| 22 | Kevin Maggs (13) | Bath RFC, England | 22 | Mirco Bergamasco (15) | Stade Francaise RFC, France |
| COACH: Eddie O'Sullivan | COACH: John Kirwan | ||||
| MATCH
NOTES The weather in Ireland was dreadful and this game never reached great levels of skill or excitiement. Ireland won comfortably in the end against an ever improving Italian team. O'Donnell was a late withdrawl, O'Callaghan taking his place with Longwell entering the reserves. Geordan Murphy returned to the Irish team after a long injury layoff after breaking his leg in a warmup test match just before the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He replaced Tyrone Howe who dropped out of the team. Malcolm O'Kelly retained his lock place despite the return from injury of Donnacha O'Callaghan who moved to the bench (and later to the starting lineup). O'Kelly's selection meant he equalled the great Willie MacBrides record of 63 tests for an Irish lock. Munster prop Marcus Horan returned to the bench from injury and played his first 6 Nations outing for the season. Veteran lock Carlo Checcinato returned to the Italy team to win his 83rd record equalling test. This brought him equal to scrum half Alessandro Troncon who is yet to appear in this years 6 Nations competition. Checcinato had already announced he will retire from international rugby at the end of this years 6 Nations competition. New Zealand-born Scott Palmer returned to the Italian side to replaced injured Sergio Parisse. Centre Manuel Dallan withdrew with a knee problem, Matteo Barbini taking his place in the centres. New cap Roberto Mandelli was called into the reserves but did not take the field. |
|||||