GILBERT Ireland International Replica Rugby Ball , 5 - Ireland

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Scoring: 0-5 Ryan try; 5-5 Varney try; 7-5 Garbisi con; 7-10 Keenan try; 7-12 Byrne con; 10-12 Garbisi pen; 10-17 Aki try; 10-19 Byrne con; 10-24 Hansen try; 15-24 Bruno try; 17-24 Garbisi; 20-24 Garbisi pen; 20-27 Byrne pen; 20-32 Hansen try; 20-34 Byrne con Just two of the alterations are enforced, with Sexton and Tadhg Beirne ruled out by injuries sustained in the 32-19 success over the French. Leaving aside the young fellas, this Ireland squad and coach are under no illusions regarding their ability and potential. Grand Slam Champions, unbeaten in 17 matches and a purring, brutal engine in which all know their role and perform it brilliantly.

The absence of Sexton hands James Ryan the captaincy, and Garry Ringrose misses his chance to win his 50th cap with a late injury.There was all sorts of manic toing and froing in the endgame before Libbok drilled a penalty from halfway to the corner, but an imposing drive was eventually stopped and held up. Rugby today is a game of inches. Do I think we could have won that game? Yes I do. But we didn’t. That’s all there is to it.” He could be forgiven. This Italy team under Kieran Crowley are fast improving and the Six Nations is all the better for it.

Andy Farrell's side set a new national record of eight straight Six Nations wins, surpassing the seven-game streak they set between 2004 and 2005 New Zealand have a few ghosts in their machine, with some of their ageing players not as evergreen as those on the other team and a level of performance that has been strong but just below the very best. Ironically, they would do well to take inspiration from one of their famous defeats: England in the 2019 semi, where a strong but unfancied team came up against a juggernaut and ran it off the road. More simply, they may just remind themselves that they absolutely battered today’s opponents in the QF the week before. Ultimately, Ireland’s Grand Slam bid goes on. A five-try bonus point win making it three from three for the men in green. But this was far squeakier than anyone really expected. Byrne will deputise for injured Leinster team-mate Johnny Sexton in the No 10 jersey while Casey comes in for fellow Munster man Conor Murray. The fledgling pair have combined well from the bench in victories over Wales and France in the opening two rounds of the tournament and Farrell expects more of the same at Stadio Olimpico. Paul O’Connell has spoken of how he loves watching this Irish team problem solve, although one wonders how much he enjoyed the first quarter, after which Ireland certainly had plenty of problems. The Boks cranked up the heat in typically ferocious manner in every facet of the game. While the Irish scrum gave one indirect penalty and one direct penalty for early engagements, they never conceded an inch. But the lineout was a different story altogether.Ian Foster’s NZ starting team has six changes, with Ethan de Groot, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith, Rieko Ioane, and Scott and Beauden Barrett all recalled.

Introducing the Ireland Replica Ball. This replica ball is modelled on the exact ball used in their international games, and is an ideal way to support your country in the lead up to the Rugby World Cup 2019. A lot of the pre-match talk in Ireland had revolved around Ross Byrne, standing in for captain Johnny Sexton. He did perfectly well, although Ireland certainly missed Sexton’s reassuring presence.Former Ireland number eight Jamie Heaslip on Radio 5 Live: "It's a great day for the Irish. They are a special group with a different mindset to the past. They are comfortable with being the number one side in the world." Ireland's route to the Grand Slam Is this the best Italy team he has faced, Clarke asks Aki: “They have always been a good team, they play with a lot of passion, you can see they want to play the game, they want to play expansive rugby and run the ball from the own try-line … we knew that, we just fell off a bit.” Replacements: Tom Stewart (Ulster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Munster), Cian Prendergast (Connacht), Caolin Blade (Connacht), Ciarán Frawley (Leinster), Calvin Nash (Munster). Welcome to the Aviva Stadium for our live blog of Ireland’s opening game in the Bank of Ireland Nations Series – the first of three warm-up matches on the road towards next month’s World Cup in France. With a scrum penalty advantage, Libbok worked a wraparound with De Allende and his long pass put Kolbe over. But despite the latter narrowing the conversion angle as Hansen had done, Libbok missed the two-pointer.

But Ireland managed to regain control and exerted enough pressure to prise open holes in the English defence, with Henshaw able to slip through before Sheehan's second score seemingly put the hosts out of England's reach. Ireland break English resistance to seal famous win Henshaw's try alleviated tension as the centre touched down to move Ireland 17-9 clearWhile Sexton's record-breaking penalty settled a few nerves, Sheehan's score produced a massive roar from the Aviva crowd, the hooker crossing after a well-worked set-piece that saw Josh van der Flier breaking from a line-out maul. Ireland: H Keenan; M Hansen, B Aki, S McCloskey (J O'Brien 73), J Lowe; R Byrne (J Crowley 78), C Casey (C Murray, 65); A Porter (D Kilcoyne 65), R Kelleher (D Sheehan 56), F Bealham (T O'Toole 36); I Henderson (R Baird 53), J Ryan; C Doris, J Van der Flier, J Conan (P O'Mahony 56)