A 51-point win yet a flat dressing-room

They scored 57 points by the end but it seems that Ireland were spooked by the unusual situation facing them.

Ireland’s Josh van der Flier with the player of the match award after the game

Even cakewalks come at a price in rugby. By the time Josh van der Flier walked off the Aviva Stadium pitch after yesterday’s farce of a game against Italy he was sporting both a black eye and a busted lip.

“I didn’t want to come off,” he explained, “I was enjoying it out there.” 

You couldn’t be anything other than happy for the Leinster flanker who added yet another man-of-the-match award to an already massive pile but enjoyment was not the word that sprung to mind watching Ireland put a 13-man Italy side to bed.

Not that some seemed to care.

Every one of the home team’s scores was greeted by shots of supporters on the stadium’s big screen roaring their approval and shaking their plastic pint with glee. It all felt hollow after the manner in which the visitors had been so reduced in number.

Van der Flier, such a robust and dynamic figure on the pitch right now, looked and sounded flustered when it was put to him that maybe the referee should be allowed a touch of discretion with such a contentious rule that sent the game into the realm of the bizarre.

“Oh gosh, I’m not really sure,” he flailed. Hard to blame him for that as he stood there in the immediate aftermath of another 80-minute tour de force but he could at least see the argument that a more flexible reading of the controversial Rule 3.20 could help.

“Well, yeah, I suppose for the supporters you want 15 but I understand in certain situations you have to give reds and yellows and that kind of thing. I didn’t get to see it, we were in a huddle planning what to do next.

“We were just chatting about the scenarios about what to do if they went down another man.” 

Whatever they discussed didn’t work. Not really.

The story goes that Arrigo Sacchi, the former AC Milan manager, used to run training drills with five defenders facing ten attackers and that the rearguard didn’t concede all that often. Italy shipped nine tries here but they provided a stiff enough test given the odds.

Ireland looked clunky out there. Their shape didn’t look right and their execution at times just wasn’t nearly good enough. They scored 57 points by the end but it seems that they were spooked by the unusual situation facing them.

“It probably did (have an effect), and it shouldn't,” said captain Peter O’Mahony. “There was a lot of waiting around with regard to what the ruling was, and just the whole stop-start of the whole 20 minutes that surrounded it.

"What we need to be better at on the pitch is negotiating our way around what the opposition are presenting us with.” 

Ireland were super slick at the breakdown on opening day against Wales but found it a far more rigorous and ponderous task against the French in Paris. Italy proved another annoying presence at the ruck despite their fewer numbers.

“It was something that wasn’t so pleasing,” van der Flier admitted. “Italy went hard there but we know we can be a lot better from our ball-carrier. In a couple of instances we could have got it back quicker and then at other times, ruckers getting there quickly.” 

This wasn’t the first Ireland-Italy Six Nations game to descend into a farce of near comical proportions: O’Mahony played 50 minutes on the wing in Rome in 2013 when Declan Kidney’s side was ravaged by injury and lost 22-15.

You could argue that this is where the similarities end but that round five debacle at the Stadio Olimpico is nothing if not another reminder as to how quickly a Six Nations campaign can leave the rails.

They kicked it off in Cardiff where they led 30-3 after the break and ended up scraping home. Narrow losses to England and Scotland were followed by a draw with the French as injuries and ill fortune worked against them.

Then they lost in Rome and finished fifth in the table.

Momentum is everything in the spring and this team has undoubtedly lost a chunk of the steam built up in that impressive opening win against Wales in Dublin after the battling defeat in Paris and now this surreal and, at times, stuttering effort.

A trip to Twickenham looms. Ireland appear to be considerably further into their journey of self-discovery under Andy Farrell than Eddie Jones’ latest vintage but Italy’s 13 men left them with plenty to ponder this next fortnight.

“We want to be ruthless but we weren’t,” said O’Mahony. “Certainly, in the last 20 minutes of the first half and parts of the second half. We weren’t accurate and we should have made life more difficult for a team that were down to 13 and 12 players at one stage.” 

A 51-point win and, as Farrell said, a flat dressing-room after it. Strange day alright.