A patchy performance saved in the main by two tries which wouldn't have been awarded had referee Dave Pearson gone upstairs, not a whole lot in the way of champagne stuff and absolutely no sign of the 20point win most folk expected after the giddiness of two weekends ago. The Heineken Cup has a lot to answer for.

Ireland beat Italy 26-16 here yesterday and could be forgiven for getting off the pitch as quickly as possible afterwards while the Italians stayed to applaud the 5,000 or so fans that had cheered them throughout. Certainly, given the anger there was in the Italian camp afterwards, the sanctuary of the dressing room must have been pretty alluring.

"I know that Italy is not as big a team as Ireland, " said Pierre Berbizier when asked about the two tries. "But I think we should be treated the same.

"I have seen the video of the second try and it was not a try. I'm not so sure about the first one but I would like to see a film of it. We are a small country and we are trying to build a team but it's hard if we're not judged on the same level as the big teams.

"I agree with the yellow card that [Ramiro] Pez got but he is somebody that is not well-known. I do not think it is fair that he got one but Brian O'Driscoll got away with stamping."

That said, however justified the Italians are in feeling hard done by, it wasn't that Ireland were lucky to win here. Rather, it was that luck had more of a hand in the win than it should have had.

There wasn't a stage where any real sense abounded that Italy had a win in them and yet had Pearson gone to the television match official with both those tries, Ireland would have had to find another way across the line. They probably would have done so, some way, some how. But only probably.

Eddie O'Sullivan wasn't having any truck with the complaints afterwards.

"First of all, the second try was awarded straight away and the referee blew the whistle so play stopped. If he hadn't blown it, Tommy would have played on and touched it down. As for the stamping, I didn't see any.

There was rucking but that's part of the game. What I will say, though, is that there's a biting incident. One of our players [he later elaborated and said it was Simon Easterby] was bitten on the arm in a line-out maul. But it was an ugly game of rugby, that's for sure."

Ugly it was, right from the start. But at the end of a muggy and murky first quarter, there was a cloudburst of sorts. Geordan Murphy, who'd up to then had all the success of a bloke with bad breath at a disco but who'd kept asking the question nonetheless, finally raised the smile he was looking for.

A corridor of space opened up ahead of him in the centre of the pitch and he shimmied through it, the first decent break of the day, the first time since kick-off that the crowd's vocal cords were properly exercised.

His pass to Tommy Bowe was a touch behind the Ulster wing and that, allied to Bowe's not overly-fleet turn of foot, allowed Cristian Stoica to bundle him into touch.

But at least it was something to get the blood pumping. Up to then, there'd been nothing swish, nothing slick.

The Italians had tackled everything that moved and nothing Ireland tried had paid any dividend.

A minute after Murphy's run, Jerry Flannery did his best Keith Wood impression and hurtled past a couple of tackles to set up Shane Horgan with a passable chance in the corner but, like Bowe, he was forced over the sideline before he could make the line that mattered.

The damage was minimal, though. Paul O'Connell swiped the Italian line-out throw and although some interference while he was in the air caused him to fall to earth like a drunk on a trampoline, he kept possession and gathered his pack around him. The push for the line was steady and organised right up until the last second when Flannery fumbled the ball as he went to touch down.

But despite the hooker dropping it and Ronan O'Gara grasping at it but failing to touch it, the referee blew his whistle and awarded the try without so much as a glance towards the box with the TMO in it.

So 7-3 to the home side but the lead didn't last long. It was the eyes of Pez which did the damage, his quick glance to the left leaving O'Gara and Gordon D'Arcy looking at each other like a pair of groomsmen who thought the other one was supposed to have the ring.

Pez was through by then and his pass sent Mirco Bergamasco away. Brian O'Driscoll leapt to try and grab his ankle but was left clutching air.

Bowe's try . . . more obviously not a try than even the first when a look at the video is taken into account . . . took Ireland into the lead.

A steady stream of penalties awarded as Italy continually refused to keep their hands to themselves at ruck time kept them just far enough out of reach for it not to be too nervy.

O'Sullivan had it just about right.

Not pretty. Pretty ugly.