And of course, it was a very, very physical game but that's something we did expect. We knew the Italians would come up straight into our faces, and while they did toe the offside line for most of the game, it's only offside if the referee gives it and you just have to deal with that.

Myself and Brian were faced with their two centres within an inch of us every time we got our hands on the ball and we just couldn't operate in such little space.

It's probably something we're going to have to get used to as the tournament goes on but we have to find a way around all that. As for the tries, we're aware now that there's a few question marks over them but I do feel that had they been disallowed, we would have come back looking for more.

Despite everything Italy did well, we weren't on top of our game. A few lads will have to take a look at their performances after this one and personally I wasn't happy with my own efforts, particularly in defence. I missed two tackles and that's the most I've missed for a long time in any game.

I'm itching to see the video of the game to see where I got things wrong and I'll be working hard all week to ensure those glitches don't rear their head again against France. Paris is not the kind of place where you want to be missing tackles, not against their centres.

There were, though, some positives despite what the media might be saying this morning. Our line-out performed well after a shaky start, I felt our counter-attacking play was quite good and most importantly of all, we actually won the game. I know it's the oldest cliche in the world but if you play poorly and still win, there's an awful lot to be said for that. Afterwards Eddie spoke about how we were going to get some criticism for our performances but we vowed to stick together and work through it. It's a blip on the radar but we're well capable of getting things together in a week.

Despite yesterday's game, it's been a positive couple of weeks in camp overall.

We've moved our base from the Citywest to Killiney and it's been a huge relief. I've nothing against the hotel whatsoever, quite the opposite in fact, but we badly needed a change of scene. It's a more difficult place for me to get to but it's been worth it just to look at a different set of walls.

We're going to be in camp nine weeks overall so believe me, that change of wallpaper will help us greatly.

The new faces in the setup have also helped to freshen things up a little. I have to admit it is a bit strange to not have the likes of Reggie Corrigan and Shane Byrne around the place but things like that happen when squads are together for a long period of time. It's just a natural turnover. The biggest laugh we got this week . . . well almost, I'll explain later . . .was from one of those newcomers, Jerry Flannery, who said in an interview during the week that he was like Roy Keane on the soccer pitch. Eoin Reddan happened to be at the back of the room while the interviews were going on and he spread the word around the squad. Jerry hasn't had a minute's peace since, the funniest thing being that he's rubbish at soccer.

So while I thought that was the funniest moment of the week, I think most people would disagree and point their fingers at me. I got a pair of new boots during the week from Puma and I tried them out at training on Thursday.

Lovely boots, the only problem was they were bright red and the rest of the lads had a ball with that.

My new nickname is Dorothy, courtesy of the David Wallace (the funniest thing he's said in years) and if someone else tells me to click my heels three times I'll go crazy. Needless to say I'm not going to use the boots now, although they were extremely comfortable. I'll probably just bide my time and wait until they're released in black.

It'll hardly happen in time for Paris next weekend, but I'd imagine I'll have a few more taxing things on my mind by then. We know exactly what's at stake and after this little wake-up call, we'll be more than ready for it.