Ireland arrived in Rome with a few questions hanging over them after the meek performance in Murrayfield, but by the end, there was one dominant question reverberating about an empty Stadio Olimpico: how much longer does the Six Nations persist with Italy? They were largely pathetic in a limp defeat to Ireland today: crashing to a 63-10 defeat, conceding nine tries in the process.
After a relatively decent showing against Wales last week in which they denied their opponents a four-try bonus point - leading for a while before succumbing to a 33-7 defeat - things were somewhat optimistic for Conor O'Shea heading into the clash with his native Ireland.
He was quickly disabused of that positivity, however, on an afternoon which shows him the scale of the job that lies ahead.
In his post-match press conference, O'Shea reflected on what had cost his side so dearly.
In doing so, he compared Ireland very favourably with the Welsh.
"...almost inviting pressure and we talked about Ireland’s ability to hold the ball through phases which is different to Wales" 2/2
— Rúaidhrí O'Connor (@RuaidhriOC) February 11, 2017
Conor O'Shea: "We had a lot of problems last week (v WAL). Today, against a better team, they were just too good" #ITAvIRE 6Nations Ouch4WAL
— Angus MacKinnon (@AngusM1966) February 11, 2017
Conor O'Shea says 'Ireland are better than the Wales team we played, 100 per cent'.
— Neil O'Riordan (@noriordan) February 11, 2017
Here's hoping that O'Shea can reflect on this game as the nadir which spurred the Italians onto better things under his stewardship, but at the moment he is sipping Italian red wine out of a poison chalice.
How he could do with another Sergio Parisse, who issued this rallying call to his team mates post-game:
Parrisse delivers long, impassioned speech in Italian - summary "We must keep our fucking heads high."
— david kelly (@dk3lly) February 11, 2017
