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'The hard part is it's an unbelievable toll we took out there, in terms of physicality and mentally'
By Peter Thompson
Conor O'Shea says Italy are still a long way from the summit of "the biggest mountain" after they were beaten 26-16 by Ireland in the Six Nations.
The Azzurri threatened to pull off a sensational upset at Stadio Olimpico on Sunday, going in at half-time with a deserved 16-12 lead.
Edoardo Padovani and Luca Morisi touched down to cancel out tries from Quinn Roux and Jacob Stockdale, while Tommaso Allan was on target with two penalties as Italy threw everything at the defending champions in the first half.
Italy were unable to avoid a 20th consecutive defeat in the tournament as Ireland ground it out in the second half, tries from Keith Earls and Conor Murray giving Ireland a bonus-point win.
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Ian McKinley missed a last-gasp kick at goal for a losing bonus point, but O'Shea was proud of his players after they gave his country of birth a scare in Rome.
"The players are a pleasure to be around. The hard part is it's an unbelievable toll we took out there, in terms of physicality and mentally." said the Italy head coach.
"There's a real belief in what we're doing but we also know it's the biggest mountain you could ever get.
"I said after the first two games that for the first time we feel we're properly climbing, but there's a long way to go on the climb."
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we need a damaging 12 that takes 2 men to tackle that will take pressure off the 10 while also creating space for the 10 and 13 . Leicester is the only guy that fits the mould . The next thing is " will he be able to develop a good offload " ? .
for 13 Joey manu has more x factor then reiko and jordie put togeather . he's got one season in japan before he looks to come home . he's a dark horse but his skill set is something the All Blacks don't have . if he comes home and lights up the npc in a game or 2 , id love to see him fast tracked and come off the bench for the All Blacks and thrown into the deep end to see if he can swim . Just to see if he's worth the time and effort to develop further . We all saw how good sualii did for the wallabies and joey manu is just as good as sualii . He's safe under the high ball , a solid defender , has a master offload , and he's fast and strong .
he fits the mould for razor's offload tactics .
Plus reiko and jordie have had the 12 & 13 for how long and I haven't seen anything special from either of them .
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