Try controversy: Tommy Bowe may be the youngest player on the Irish team but he is not about to explain away his try as one of the vagaries of refereeing. Last week Irish international official Alain Rolland said that one of the pressures referees come under in the modern game is when coaches try to use them as an out. Immaculate timing.

That the television cameras and the press box were on the blind side of Bowe's 47th-minute touchdown puts all but the Irishman, the Italian, Mauro Bergamasco, who wrapped him up, and referee Dave Pearson out of the picture. They were the only people close enough to the action to see what happened. So it ended two to one against the Italians, Bowe and Pearson agreeing that the try was legit.

Pearson was so convinced he didn't ask for a second opinion. Arrogant or decisive? The cameras tell a story, but it is not the complete story and, against the vast consensus of video watchers, Bowe also backs Pearson.

"I grounded the ball," said the Irish winger after the match. "The referee basically blew his whistle, had his hand up straight away. Once I bounced on to my back I could see him with his arm up so there was no need to try and continue to struggle. I just obeyed the referee.

"I put the ball down. I mean if the referee blows his whistle and puts his hand up there's no point in trying to struggle out of it. You see him holding me there and I'm not struggling because I knew the try had been given."

As Bowe fell to the ground with the ball tucked tight, his elbow appeared to be sandwiched between the ball and the ground. But his feeling is that a portion of the ball was available to make the critical connection. Fractionally so.

"A fraction of a second, yeah," he said. "I think the ball was grounded and the referee thought it was grounded. I'm not going to argue with that. He blew his whistle as soon as I hit the ground. If it was a case of him sitting there looking at me, I probably would have struggled and hopefully tried to roll over again because the momentum probably would have brought me over."

Italian coach Pierre Berbizier countered Bowe's version of events. The former French scrumhalf didn't mince words after the match. Both Irish tries had a hint of controversy about them and the Italians were in a serious strop.

"The two tries of the Irish team should have been referred by the referee to the video official and should not have been awarded," said Berbizier. "This was especially true of the second and the match was changed by that. The second try was not a score. Definitely not a try."

As Ireland struggled to punch holes in the Italian blitz defence through the back line, it fell to Bowe to get on the end of several crossfield kicks from Ronan O'Gara. While there is an element of the "Hail Mary" in the move, with timing it often works out.

"Their defence was straight and hard up from the outside," said the winger. "It was very difficult to get through them or around them. Against a team with a defence like that, there is always the option for the big kick behind."

Perhaps the best sequence of the Irish game came when Geordan Murphy broke with Bowe on his outside. It looked like a two-on-one, but the clever covering of winger Gonzalo Canale and the hesitancy as Bowe gathered Murphy's pass behind his body damned the move, and Canale made the tackle only feet from the line.

"It was disappointing," said Bowe. "Just those small little errors. Rustiness maybe. In training we'll go 100 per cent and hopefully iron it out before next week.

"I'm fairly happy. It was one of those games where it was hard for a winger to get into the game. It was going to be a physical match so I tried to get my hands on the ball, make small yards if I could, and if I got the chance to run then I would take it. I didn't get the chance to make many breaks, but it wasn't a game for that.

"We always knew the physicality of the match was going to be massive and a step up from the autumn. It certainly proved that. We didn't really get it to flow quite the way we wanted it to, but we're happy."