Concern over Joey Carbery while Jean Kleyn and Andrew Conway shine - Winners & Losers from Ireland's win over Italy

Concern over Joey Carbery while Jean Kleyn and Andrew Conway shine - Winners & Losers from Ireland's win over Italy

Ireland claimed a relatively comfortable win over Italy in their first Rugby World Cup warm-up match at Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

Despite going down 5-0 early on Ireland looked comfortable throughout and rallied on to a 29-10 victory with a number of players putting their hands up for selection.

Here are our winners and losers from the clash.

Joey Carbery - Loser



Carbery looked comfortable, controlled and threatening while he was on the pitch and although we have listed him as a loser, his performance may make him a winner if his injury is not as bad as first impressions showed.


The Munster man was superb for just under 50 minutes showing off his wide range of skills to score a try while also shifting the ball on well and kicking superbly in open play.

All but one of Ireland's tries were scored while Carbery was on the pitch with other try coming from a charge down from Kieran Marmion.

Jean Kleyn - Winner

Kleyn looked right at home in the test arena as he powered through a 74 minute test debut. Having just qualified on Thursday to represent Ireland, Kleyn had a point to prove if he is to board the plane to Japan for the World Cup.

And the second-rower certainly did just that. He was excellent around the park adding another punch to the Irish pack and was often the first arriving player to the ruck.

Rob Herring - Loser

A rare opportunity in the starting line up for Rob Herring with Rory Best rested and Sean Cronin seemingly out of favour. The Ulster hooker lasted less than 20 minutes before he was subsituted due to injury.

Meanwhile, Niall Scannell took his opportunity with both hands putting in a strong performance off the bench in place of Herring.

Chris Farrell - Winner

Joe Schmidt is spoilt for choice in his midfield and Chris Farrell did not make his selection headache any easier with his performance against Italy. The Munster man was excellent in all facets of the game and linked up well with Garry Ringrose, who too had a solid game against the Italians.

Andrew Conway & Dave Kearney - Winners

Two players who could actually be competing for the same seat on the plane to Japan, both Conway and Kearney were in fine form against Italy. They both got through a bucket load of work both on attack and defence and both got their names on the scoresheet.

Quinn Roux - Loser

Roux was released from the Ireland squad earlier this week and his hopes of sneaking back into the side for the World Cup seem to be over after strong performances from Kleyn, Toner and finally Beirne.

Rhys Ruddock - Winner

Ruddock seems to be in and out of Ireland's squad but another strong game against Italy that included a cool head as captain, should see him make the final cut for the World Cup squad.

He still maintains an unbeaten streak as captain and can play both sides of the scrum. His fellow loose forwards also did their hopes no harm particularly Tommy O'Donnell. 

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