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Ireland need Six Nations Paris bonus as Keenan double leads thrashing of Italy

One down, one to go for Ireland, who moved to the top of the Six Nations table with a routine bonus-point victory over Italy in Dublin with Hugo Keenan and Will Connors scoring tries on debut.

If they are to be crowned champions next Saturday however, they are likely to need their first bonus point win in Paris and given Ireland’s record away to France it is a huge task that awaits.

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They finished with seven tries on Saturday but they may live to regret Garbisi going over at the death. The winning margin of 33 was a shade below their average at home against Italy in the past four years but that is understandable given how long it had been since their last outing.

Should they beat France without a bonus point however, it is likely to mean that England will end up champions. Ireland’s points difference is now 23 better than England’s and even without their warm-up against the Barbarians on Sunday Eddie Jones will fancy bettering that by enough of a margin in Rome.

“Points difference might not be enough now, if we had got another score or not conceded at the end, maybe we could have put a bit of pressure on England,” said Ireland’s captain, Jonny Sexton.

“Now we might have to go over and score four. 50-17, if you’d offered me that at the start of the day I’d have snapped your hand off. But we go to Paris with it all to do.”

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It was a low-key resumption to the competition, seven and a half months since the previous match, but Ireland’s victory sets up the finale nicely.

Against a youthful Italy, Ireland were rarely troubled, trotting along in second gear for the most part. They found favour with the referee, Matthew Carley, at the breakdown, which hardly meant for much of a spectacle but ensured the home side’s forwards enjoyed themselves, Caelan Doris in particular impressing.

For Italy, it is a 26th Six Nations defeat in a row and a mountain of work to do to get themselves into a position where they can be competitive in matches such as this. At least they managed two tries through Edoardo Padovani and the 20-year-old Garbisi – they have after all failed to score twice in this year’s competition – and they began on the front foot after a powerful break through the middle from Jake Polledri led to a penalty in front of the posts for Garbisi and a yellow card for Conor Murray for a cynical infringement.

No matter for Ireland – they responded with the opening try with Murray still off the field when CJ Stander forced his way over from close range before Sexton added a penalty.

Garry Ringrose was forced off with a head injury and his replacement, Robbie Henshaw, fired a long pass to the left to Keenan, who did well to finish in the corner.

Two minutes later he thought he had another, following a fine break from Jacob Stockdale, who looked assured at full-back, but James Ryan was adjudged to have blocked Marco Lazzaroni in the buildup.

Three minutes has passed when Keenan did score his second – the pick of the bunch after a delightfully timed kick towards the corner from Murray.

Ireland were sluggish in the third quarter – as shown when Padovani picked off Sexton’s pass for an interception try – but when Connors went over in the 61st minute, both Sexton and Bundee Aki, following a fine offload from Peter O’Mahony, soon followed.

Dave Heffernan’s converted try in the final minute took Ireland to their half-century but Italy responded with a fine finish from Garbisi.