Ireland 61 Italy 6: Neither the 60-40 possession, nor a territorial graph that was slightly less than that, much less a 9-6 scoreline entering first half injury time, pointed to this being another 60-pointer against the Italians.

Eddie O'Sullivan admitted that the scoreline flattered his team but one thing, in a word, encapsulated the key difference between the sides. Pace.

Ireland had bundles of it. Italy had a chronic shortage of it, and nothing highlighted this more than Denis Hickie's quartet of tries. Two were from around halfway and demonstrated that once Ireland's rejuvenated flying winger glimpsed even a glimmer of daylight the chase was over before it had even started. As a last line of defence, the ponderous Gert Peens is about as useful as a mannequin.

In emulating a feat he achieved, ironically, here at Thomand Park at a schools' international a decade ago, Hickie's haul was the biggest of many pluses from an Irish perspective. Joining Brian Robinson and Keith Wood in the record books in scoring four tries is one thing, emulating Brian O'Driscoll as Ireland's leading try scorer with 19 tries is another. Better still the way he has used his summer recuperation to restore his form and confidence, thus reminding his detractors that he remains, quite simply, a world-class finisher and on this form unquestionably Ireland's first-choice winger.

There were many other encouraging individual displays, which O'Sullivan admitted had further intensified the competition for the 30-man World Cup squad to be announced next Sunday. Uppermost amongst these was the big performance of Leo Cullen, heretofore regarded as fifth in the pecking order of locks.

Supreme in the air, where Shane Byrne's darts were on the money, Cullen was prominent around the park.

Simon Easterby overcame an early missed tackle with another of his highly effective all-round games and Kieron Dawson gave the back row a better balance. David Humphreys gave an assured, authoritive and busy display, his try augmenting nine points out of 11 for a 26-point haul. O'Driscoll was noticeably sharper and, more eager to offload in the tackle, was Ireland's likeliest gamebreaker when Italy were still in the match, while John Kelly gave a typically clever and polished all-round performance.

All that said, Eric Miller was more effective at number eight than seven, and Rob Henderson would have liked to have made a bigger impact, even if these matches have been sharpening him.