Ireland U20 v Italy U20 As It Happened

Thanks for staying with us and we will be back with all the news on South Africa/England later this evening.

So it’s out of our hands now. We need South Africa to beat England by more than eight and hold England to less than four tries to make the semi-finals. Whatever happens, Peter Nelson, James Rael and James McGrath all had good games and despite the number of errors and mistakes, it was a very entertaining game with eight tries.

Fingers crossed now. We will know in about four hours if we made it.

It's all over, 41-12.

A few of the Irish lads are cramping up now. Less than four to play. The job is done, as much as they coud do anyway. Up to Babyboks to help us now.

Ireland still pushing hard but surely that 58-point win is beyond them now. Only seven to play.

Twenty-five handling erros in the game so far. Ireland 14-Italy 11.

Nelson goes off. A great performance by an Irish No 13. Where have we we seen that before...

Lots of replacements in now for both sides. The cavalcade of knock ons and errors, now mainly by the boys in blue, continues.

And Nelson crosses again. The Ulster man's second. He's having a fine game. Carty missed the conversion. 41-12 now. If he had landed it the gap would have been 31, the exact handicap mark offered by the bookies. A nervous final 15 for backers and layers ahead.

Another Italian error, and anoter good kick and chase by Nelson, moves play right back into Italian 22

And just like that, there's another one. What a try by scrum-half Luke McGrath. He picks off the back of a wheeling scrum, nips down the blinside, clips it over another player, then weaves past two more before crosssing. As classy a try as you will see anywhere by the UCD man. A super conversion by Carty mkaes it 36-12. There's lots more scores for Ireland here if they want them. Still 25 to play.

So, it is 29-12 now, the bonus point is in the bag so we are keeping up our end of the deal, as it stands...

And there it is. Like I predicted, it came after good work by Farrell and Nelson, and 10 phases close to the Italian line, but the man who eventually crossed was hooker James Real. It looked like there was a forward pass in there somewhere but we will keep that quiet.

More broken play, and mistakes, from both sides. However, Ireland need a fourth try for the bonus point and if it comes, it looks like the centre pairing of Nelson and Farrell are the best bet.

And the first few bars of 'The Fields of Athenry' ring out. Fair play to Irish fans, they get everywhere...

More scrum talk from the ref. He's still not happy.

Amazing bit of skill by Sherlock to keep the ball in play there. Like Mario Balotelli against Spain. Anyway, Italy have the ball now inside the Irish 22.

Crunching hit on full-back Mike Sherlock after collecting a high ball. He's fine, and made of tough stuff apparently.

Conneely fumbles an Italian line-out. Blue scrum, something we would really rather avoid at this stage.

And we're off. Wonder will the second half begin like the first?

Ireland made four turnovers to Italy's one in that half. Reverse that stat in the second half and we should be grand. Zero missed tackles by the lads though. Italy had 10!

And after another collapsed scrum, referee Angus Gardner blows for half-time. A breathless first 15 minutes saw five tries but things calmed down. Both sides are making lots of mistakes and the referee is being very fussy on scrums, ruining the game a bit, but Ireland have certainly got the ability to win this comfortably. Let's hope they can do it and then get a favour from the other game this evening. Ireland 24 Italy 12 at HT.

The game has gotten bogged down a bit, with aimless kicks and more errors. Incredibly it is only one minute until half-time! That certainly flew by.

While we have a break for an Italian injury we can now find time to say that Ruddock made nine changes to the team that just fell short against England on Friday. On the evidence so far, our underage structures have no shortage of good players to call. on.

Still catching up after that mad start. Here are the two teams. Coghlan Murray replaced by Stuart Olding a minute ago by the way. He did pull up after that breakaway run he went on.

IRELAND U-20: Mike Sherlock (Clontarf/Leinster); Conor Finn (Buccaneers/Connacht), Peter Nelson (Dungannon/Ulster), Chris Farrell (Dungannon/Ulster), Sam Coghlan Murray (UCD/Leinster); Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht), Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster); Des Merrey (Clontarf/Leinster), James Rael (Garryowen/Munster), Peter Reilly (Lansdowne/Leinster), Alan O'Connor (UCD/Leinster), Iain Henderson (Queen's University/Ulster), Aaron Conneely (Corinthians/Connacht), Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster), Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) (capt).

Replacements: Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), Jake Cawley (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Leinster), Shane Buckley (Garryowen/Munster), Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht), Cathal Marsh (Dublin University/Leinster), Stuart Olding (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster).

ITALY U-20: David Odiete (Rugby Reggio); Alex Morsellino (Petrarca Padova), Giovanni Benvenuti (Marchiol Mogliano), Andrea Bettin (Rubano Rugby), Filippo Guarducci (Marchiol Mogliano); Edoardo Padovani (Marchiol Mogliano), Guido Calabrese (San Gregorio Catania); Giovanni Maistri (Cammi Calvisano) (capt), Giovanni Scalvi (Rugby Reggio), Leonardo Bortoletti (Rubano Rugby), Marco Bellucci (Rugby Emergenti Cecina), Alfio Luca Mammana (L'Aquila Rugby), Ruben Riccioli (Mantovani Lazio), Guglielmo Zanini (M-Three San Donà), Vittorio Marazzi (Sertori Sondrio).

Replacements: Luca Conti (Udine Rugby), Sami Drissi-Panico (UR Capitolina), Pietro Ceccarelli (Stade Rochelais), Alessio Zdrilich (Ospitaletto Rugby), Federico Conforti (Petrarca Padova), Marcello Violi (Rugby Reggio), John Apperley (Rugby Reggio), Giulio Bisegni (Mantovani Lazio).

Great break by Irish wing Sam Coghlan Murray but he is stopped close to the line after trying to feed Nelson. Both sides look like they might score every time they attack.

I'm happy to report that after a mad start, with five tries in the first 15 minutes, this game has finally turned into a normal contest. My overworked fingers are thankful.

An Irish infringement gives Italy a line-out right on the Irish line but good defence coughs up an Irish scrum. Referee has been concerned about the scrum engagement but this one was okay.

On what we have seen here in the opening 22 minutes, anything is possible, including that 58 point margin. But a bonus point win should be very attainable for Mike Ruddock's side.

SA don't face England until this evening, so we will have to wait either way. Not ideal and not really fair to have their game kick-off at a different time, 5.45pm our time to be precise.

Okay, courtesy of the brilliant HarpinOnRugby, here's the permutations.

• We beat Italy with bonus point and South Africa beat England by 8 or more points (and Eng don't score 4 tries).  This will leave Ire & SA on 10pts ahead of Eng on 9, which means Ireland win the pool as they will have beaten South Africa.

• If we beat Italy with bonus point and SA beat Eng by 7pts or less, then all three countries will be level on 10pts and it will go down to pts difference.  To stand a chance of winning the pool this way, Ireland's margin of victory over Italy will need to be at LEAST 58 points to be sure.

Carty just slams over the game's first penalty. 24-12 now. Carty perfect, four from four. Most of the other players, on both sides have been making mistakes, knock-ons, missed placed passes, poor scrum engagement.

We're going to have to pause the permutation talk as Italy have bagged another try, by Calibrese. To say this match is a bit sloppy is an understatement. And the weather is perfect! 21-12.

Okay, let's try this again. Here's the Pools before today's game kicked off

Ireland have stopped scoring but an intercept and length of the pitch try by Italy's fly-half Padavani puts them on the board. great try. 21-7.

And there's the third, via Aaron Conneely. Carty nails it again. 21-0 after eight minutes. Incredible start. If they ever stop scoring I will advise you on the permutations of this afternoon.

Okay, sorry folks, worst possible time for the server to go on the blink. Anyway, think we are back now. I would love to say you missed nothing but Ireland have already bagged two tries. The first was by Peter Nelson after just 61 seconds, and the second was by Chris Farrell four minutes later. Jack Carty converted both. 14-0 Ireland after six minutes.

Today, the team dubbed the Wolfpuppies face Italy and they are heavy favourites to see off the junior Azzurri in Cape Town. However, that may not be enough to get us into the top four seeds, and the semi-finals.

Before we get into the details of what we need to happen today in our game, and in the game between the hosts and England, here’s the current standings.