Ireland beat Italy to keep faint title hopes alive

Men's Six Nations

Italy (10) 17

Tries: Ioane, Varney Cons: Allan 2 Pen: Allan

Ireland (12) 22

Tries: Keenan, Sheehan 3 Con: Crowley

Ireland held off a spirited Italy to secure a bonus-point win in Rome and keep alive their faint hopes of winning a third consecutive Six Nations.

Hugo Keenan's first-half score and Dan Sheehan's hat-trick ensured a win that took Ireland to 19 points in the table, three clear of France and four ahead of England.

Italy scored tries through Monty Ioane and Stephen Varney, but paid the price for ill discipline, with Michele Lamaro sin-binned just before the break and Ross Vintcent shown red in the second half for a high hit on Keenan.

After Sheehan's hat-trick score put the visitors 22-10 up, Stephen Varney's try raised Italy hopes of a rare win over Ireland, but the home side's late pressure failed to yield a winning moment.

Wales face England in Cardiff at 16:45 GMT before leaders France welcome Scotland to Paris at 20:00.

An England win would take them top of the table as they have a superior points difference over Ireland.

But victory for France would almost certainly secure them the title given their vastly superior points difference over England.

With their title hopes hanging by a thread and arriving in Rome on the back of a humbling defeat by France, captain Caelan Doris said Ireland needed to finish the campaign with their "best performance".

But this did not come close. Against France, Ireland dominated the opening 20 minutes without scoring a point. Here, they started ponderously and Italy took advantage, constructing a beautiful opening try after 12 minutes.

In-form centre Tommaso Menoncello broke through a couple of tackles and offloaded to Paolo Garbisi, whose perfectly weighted grubber kick was dotted down by Ioane.

Italy could have scored a second try a few minutes later had it not been for a knock-on following another impressive Menoncello surged through the Ireland midfield.

After that let-off, Ireland got their act together somewhat, and after the TMO ruled out a Finlay Bealham try for the prop's double movement, Jack Crowley sent Keenan through for the Ireland opener.

It did not quite open the floodgates. Instead, Garry Ringrose - back from suspension - was caught offside and Tommaso Allan nailed a long-range penalty to put Italy 10-7 ahead.

But Italy lost forwards Dino Lamb, Sebastian Negri and Lorenzo Cannone to injury in the first half and their cause was not helped when squad captain Michele Lamaro, who had been dropped to the bench, was sin-binned for deliberately knocking the ball out of Jamison Gibson-Park's hands at the back of a ruck.

Lamaro was furious with himself and Italy's woes only deepened when Ireland immediately pounced through Sheehan to lead 12-10 at the break.

Ireland stretched the lead to seven when Sheehan scored a near-identical second try off the back of a maul before Vintcent received a yellow card - later upgraded to a 20-minute red - for a dangerous tackle on Keenan.

The third Ireland try was the pick of the bunch. Gibson-Park launched a pinpoint kick to the wing, where Mack Hansen tapped the ball back for Sheehan to complete his treble.

That bonus-point score should have settled Irish nerves, but after fly-half Crowley - making his first start of the tournament - missed his third conversion attempt, Italy rallied.

After a superb break from Ange Capuozzo, replacement scrum-half Varney touched down as Hansen misjudged the bounce of the ball inside Ireland's in-goal area.

Allan's conversion brought Italy to within five points but, despite applying intense pressure in the closing stages, Ireland - who had a fifth try ruled out after James Lowe was adjudged to have been in touch - held on to clinch a narrow win and begin the waiting game.

Ireland also bid farewell to veterans Peter O'Mahony and Conor Murray, both of whom received rapturous ovations when introduced from the bench.

Cian Healy, who played his last Test last week against France, joined his team-mates on the pitch at the end to wave goodbye to the Ireland fans.

Despite a hard-fought win, though, the odds remain stacked against the trio retiring with another title.

Italy: Allan; Capuozzo, Brex (capt), Menoncello, Ioane; Garbisi, Page-Relo; Fischetti, Lucchesi, Ferrari; Lamb, Ruzza; Negri, Zuliani, L Cannone.

Replacements: Nicotera, Spagnolo, Zilocchi, N Cannone, Lamaro, Vintcent, Varney, Marin.

Sin-bin: Lamaro (40), Nicotera (80)

Red card: Vintcent (56)

Ireland: Keenan; Hansen, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe; Crowley, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Bealham; Ryan, Beirne; Conan, Van der Flier, Doris (capt).

Replacements: G McCarthy, Boyle, Furlong, J McCarthy, O'Mahony, Murray, Prendergast, Aki.

Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng)