Ireland defeat Italy 36-12 in Rugby League World Cup boilover
IRELAND have caused the first boilover of the World Cup with an upset win over Italy with Jack Johns suffering a suspected broken arm in his international debut.
JACK Johns has been sent to hospital for scans on a suspected broken arm, which capped a horror afternoon for Italy as Ireland caused the first World Cup boilover.
The Irish ran away 36-12 winners on a hot afternoon where their substitutes did their best to avoid sunburn by wearing straw hats on the sidelines.
English-born winger Liam Kay posted a first-half try double to give Ireland a lead they never really looked like surrendering.
They had racked up more points by halftime than they were able to score their entire disastrous Cup campaign four years earlier.
The Irish deserved a couple of pints of Guinness to celebrate their shock win, which was paying $5 with the bookies during the week against an Italian team with NRL stars James Tedesco, Paul Vaughan and Nathan Brown.
For Italy, the potential loss of Johns will be cruel with the playmaker forced from the field straight after halftime with an arm injury.
Coach Cameron Ciraldo said it was ‘’50/50’’ if there was a break, and it would be cruel if Matty Johns’ young bloke was rubbed out the remainder of the Cup.
The potential loss of Johns places more importance on the return of Terry Campese next week against the USA after he missed Sunday’s shock loss because of a calf strain.
“Hopefully we get good news on it,’’ Ciraldo said of Johns.
“He’ll be pretty shattered if he was to miss the rest of the games. He’s a really good kid, he prepared well for this game, and he didn’t get much to go off today.
“Ireland put all of us under pressure, especially our halves.’’
Ciraldo said Italy had not taken Ireland lightly, and not having the ball the first five minutes in the stifling conditions immediately put them on the back foot.
Little had gone right for the Irish in the lead-up to their Cup opener, with torrential rain greeting them when they first arrived in north Queensland with the hope of acclimatising to the conditions.
They were forced to train indoors, and their only serious hitout was an opposed session against Tonga during the week.
But they raced out of the blocks with a try to long-haired Kay, who was one of the stars of the much-hyped Toronto Wolfpack during their inaugural season.
George King doubled the lead in the tenth minute, and when Kay dived in the left corner for his second approaching the half hour, Italy _ with the advantage of NRL stars James Tedesco, Nathan Brown and Paul Vaughan _ looked in real strife.
Justin Castellaro raced 70m for an intercept try before halftime, and a comeback looked on the cards when Nathan Milone scored straight after the break to get the Italians back to within eight points.
But Ireland refused to give in, scored against the run of play, and made sure the result when Tedesco slipped over and Michael Morgan was able to collect the ball and score the easiest of tries.
Coach Mark Ashton said the victory was hardly a shock to them, and the win the best he had been involved for club or country.
“The way we prepared over the last two weeks, it’s been outstanding, the boys have been great and put a lot of work in to get that result,’’ Ashton said.
Captain Liam Finn added: “We came up here, we said we’d perform, I don’t know if many people listened, but we knew we’d put in a good performance today. Whether that was going to be good enough to beat Italy, that was up for grabs, but it turns out it was.’’
Ireland did a marvellous job containing Tedesco, with Ashton admitting the presence of assistant of former Melbourne enforcer Brett White had been a great help.
FULL-TIME
IRELAND 36 (L Kay 2 K Amor G King L McCarthy-Scarsbrook M Morgan tries L Finn 6 goals) bt AZZURRI 12 (J Castellaro N Milone tries J Mantellato 2 goals) at Barlow Park. Referee: Grant Atkins.
Originally published as Ireland defeat Italy 36-12 in Rugby League World Cup boilover
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