Italy ... 13 Ireland ... 37 reland strutted their stuff in the Stadio Flaminio, looking the part for much of the afternoon, and there was never any real doubt about the outcome.

For the few fleeting moments when the Azzurri threatened to make a real match of it, Ireland dismissed the local temerity much like a schoolyard bully swatting away a cheeky upstart.

Significantly, when Italy reduced their leeway to an almost unreal 10-23 with the final quarter to come courtesy of a Denis Dallan try, Ireland came downfield clinically to score a try of their own.

It showed how much they were thinking on their feet too. The pack, as they did pretty much throughout, pushed the Italians back with a driven lineout and so sucked in the back row. Conscious that replacement outhalf Ramiro Pez was hobbling on an injured left ankle, David Humphreys orchestrated a neat switch with Brian O'Driscoll for the latter to straighten back through that vulnerable channel for his record-breaking 18th try for Ireland.

Ruthless stuff, and game over.

Ultimately, this eighth successive Irish win was garnished by a handful of tries from five different backs, but in truth that gives a misleading gloss to the nature of the performance. This was a dominant Irish display founded oa domineering pack.

Granted, the Italian pack is much changed from last year, whereas the back line contains many of the old familiar Azzurri names which have played against Ireland over the years. Never the less, the Italian forwards put it up to Ireland only last season in Dublin, and no doubt the memory of Italy's seven-man shove late on that day was a sore point with the Irish pack.

The response to the Dallan try off a maul, about the only time the home pack were even briefly in the ascendency, seemed to anger Anthony Foley and co.

The drive which followed was even bettered by the maul off the Italian restart to the subsequent fifth try by Geordan Murphy. More a running maul than a walking one.

The maul may not be edge of the seat stuff when it comes to entertainment but it is, according to forwards coach Niall O'Donovan, one of the most difficult skills to master and requires more time than anything else on the training ground.

Clearly, many hours have been well spent.

In a fairly complete forward effort, the clearing away at ruck time was pretty swift, while the lineouts reaped a veritable bounty. Again the variety of options kept Italy guessing, and fruitlessly at that, and with Malcolm O'Kelly lord of the line-outs, they kept the Italians' throw under continuous pressure, nicking half a dozen of them.

And what about the scrum? Not so long ago it was an Achilles' heel, when mere survival was regarded as a good day at the office. Now it is a weapon. The twist and shove against the head in the first half which nearly led to a long-range try by Denis Hickie can largely be attributed to Reggie Corrigan.

The 31-year-old, like so many of the reborn figures which populate this team, has surely never been playing better. Big, imposing and physical around the pitch, and a strong scrummager, few deserved an uninterrupted campaign more than Reggie, and he'll be a loss.

The forward play, especially at set-piece time, had already laid the foundations for a comforting 10-0 lead. Surges by Victor Costello, again Ireland's primary ball-carrier early on, and Foley off a drive from an O'Kelly take enabled Peter Stringer to burrow over from a few inches. And a clever lineout variation, with Stringer transferring Gary Longwell's take to Foley on the peel, had seen Humphreys tag on a penalty.

There was already only one winner after the first quarter.

Typical of the mountain Italy were facing, they worked their way upfield through a long Diego Dominguez touch-find into the Irish half and then hardly touched the ball for two minutes. O'Kelly gathered again. Cue a textbook, choreographed maul. Costello and Foley took it on, Humphreys chipped to the corner to earn a five-metre scrum, Costello drove again, then O'Driscoll further out.

In the scheme of things, that this spell of the game culminated in the ever-industrious Keith Gleeson offloading in the tackle for John Kelly to touch down merely varnished Ireland's clear ascendancy. Much of the early assurance emanated from Murphy, as solid as, well, Girvan Dempsey.

After a nervy start that might once have undermined his day, Humphreys marshalled things expertly. Landing five out of seven kicks was no mean achievement with the mitre ball, another pig which doesn't fly, and he underlined his ability to spot and make the most of a gap for Ireland's fourth try, while his run and link up with O'Driscoll set up Murphy's finale.

The performance was again far from flawless, and Denis Hickie's two knock-ons in open play were perhaps symptomatic of the errors/lapses in concentration which punctuated the performance.

Likewise two missed tackles by, of all people, Kevin Maggs, who was under-used perhaps because Ireland had spotted Mauro Bergamasco being moved in to inside centre as guardian to Dominguez.

Then again, given the ridiculous itinerary the squad were put through, not to mention the unusual climactic changes, this was unavoidable.

In a loose game, Ireland failed to convert many opportunities while Italy too lost their self-belief and patience in their ability to recycle the ball as they kicked it away too much. They also saw Dominguez miss a couple of drop goals and two penalties in an under-par and uncharacteristic effort from the little veteran.

Still, two good away wins for Ireland and a points difference of plus 54 despite flawed performances shows how far Ireland have travelled. Now comes the first of the true tests