Brian ODriscoll's Diary 'Guys made the kind of mistakes they wouldn't ordinarily make - and top of the list of offenders was one Brian O'Driscoll

Without over dramatising it, the last six days have been tough. To win in Murrayfield and now the Stadio Flaminio with the logistics of travelling and training coupled with the physical wear and tear of two Six Nations Championship matches is a decent achievement.

Winning is the most important factor and while our performance against Italy didn't have the cohesion and fluency we'd aspire to, we completed the task.

It would be silly to say that the Scotland game didn't take something out of us.

The legs were a bit heavier and there's only so much massage that will iron out the soreness and heaviness in the limbs. Perhaps that was one of the reasons we weren't on top form while at the same time doing enough to win.

People might also underestimate the challenge that Italy posed. They aren't being given the credit they deserve; they're a better side than everyone makes them out to be. To come away and beat them by 24 points - we're happy enough.

Physical tiredness does bring on mental tiredness. Guys made the type of mistakes they wouldn't ordinarily make - and top of the list of offenders was one Brian O'Driscoll. I was embarrassed on a couple of occasions.

I got so excited at one stage when Den (Denis Hickie) popped the ball off to me that I had a million things racing through my mind.

It was a case of fast forward to what I was going to do with the ball before I had it in my grasp. My concentration was gone for a split second and I literally handed it (the ball) to Mauro Bergamasco on a plate.

A potential try-scoring attack was transformed into standing behind our own posts waiting for Diego Dominguez to score three points.

I was a bit sloppy on another occasion, losing ball in contact; we got it back but it was just messy. You're going to get days when things don't go for you and this was one.

Thankfully matters improved in the second half. In all seriousness it was not my best performance in an Irish shirt but a win is a win is a win. I wasn't as sharp as I should have been but you're going to have the occasional slip-up.

Ah yes, the ball. Prior to coming to Rome I had been practising my kicking in Naas with the same balls that would be used in the match only for some of my team-mates to collapse with laughter at my efforts.

They were going 20 metres at right angles and I resolved to keep the old kicking to a minimum on that evidence.

Nobody was more shocked than I was when I managed to connect properly for once and send it 50 metres during the match.

It's not a good ball. People say balls are balls but they're not. Den made a good point drawing on the analogy of Tiger Woods being handed a different set of irons and pointing out that Tiger would not perform to the same standard.

We're used to the Gilbert ball and it is a certain weight and shape. Then you go and play with the Mitre that's much lighter - it was actually a nice ball to pass with until the wind got hold of it.

Trying to catch kicks was a lottery because the ball just drifted all over the place and would then dip at the last second.

When you consider this, it merely highlights how good Geordan Murphy performed against this backdrop. He had a great game.

You know that no matter how well judged the ball is played in behind our defence, you'll suddenly see this long, loping stride gobble up the ground and invariably do the right thing, much like Girv (Girvan Dempsey).

It's great peace of mind for team-mates, knowing that nine and a half times out of 10 it's going to be dealt with extremely well.

The record? It's funny Humphs (David Humphreys) turned to me and laughed that it's the first time in the history of rugby that someone has scored off the particular move we called.

Previously we had called a variation on it, a more complex one, and Maggsie (Kevin Maggs) had nearly got over for a try.

I had seen that Pez had got a knock literally as soon as he had come on for Dominguez.

There was no better time providing we could orchestrate a little bit of a gap between him and Cristian Stoica. On his (Pez) own I fancied my chances against him that close to the line.

Humphs dragged Stoica across beautifully - he got minced as he gave it to me - and to be honest it wasn't the most difficult of finishes.

On the way back to the halfway line Den came up and smiled - 'Congratulations, Mister Record-try-scorer!' - but warned me that they're were a few people hot on my heels.

It's an honour to break the record of an outstanding player like Brendan Mullin.

An integral part of our success in these two games has been down to an unsung hero in video analyst Mervyn Murphy. We've been well primed for the differing demands of facing the Scots and the Italians.

This is my first time in Italy and I have been wowed by the food, it's magnificent.

You go to France, a country renowned for their cuisine, but in fairness the rugby food is not the same as going to a restaurant. But here it is just incredible - it's been heaven.

I could quite easily be Italian. You don't have to be into architecture to marvel at the buildings. It's just a wonderful city and some day I'm going to come back and take the three or four days that a person would need without a thought of rugby to explore it properly.

They're have been the lighter moments and one incident involving our physio Ailbe McCormack gave everyone a good laugh.

He received this big box full of gear from adidas and I had this little container inside his so I actually opened the box in the first place. There are players who wouldn't get what Ailbe did.

The lads went and emptied the entire contents leaving him a pair of socks and hiding the rest of his stuff. To say that he bit would be an understatement as he rushed around trying to find out what had happened to the gear.

Speaking of things comical, we went out to look for the Trevi fountain the other night and don't ask me what were we thinking - but Mal (Malcolm O'Kelly) somehow got his hands on the map, the wannabe tour guide from Templeogue.

The lads saw this fountain in the distance - being shortsighted I was merely told it was in the distance. We're thinking, 'this is an impressive fountain' - but weren't convinced it was the Trevi.

One giveaway was the fact that we couldn't figure out how people would negotiate the six lanes of cars whizzing past without getting killed.

We asked a local stall-holder and he told us that the Trevi was about two miles away in the opposite direction, so chastened we returned to the hotel. I'll never be going orienteering with Mal.

It'll be good to go home now and just chill and see how my housemate Tombstone is getting on having undergone a knee reconstruction following a rugby injury.

Getting home and doing the things that people take for granted like crashing out on the couch and watching television, sleeping in your own bed, is something to which I'm really looking forward.

There's no joy in living out of a suitcase as much as people at times envy the lifestyle we lead. We do get to see some fantastic hotels but they get monotonous.

I won't think about rugby until we reconvene on Wednesday for the video session and only then will thoughts turn towards France.

Sometimes you just have to kick back and enjoy the present rather than constantly focusing on the future.

In an interview with John O'Sullivan