Apparently the U2 frontman was to make an appearance. I said I didn't know but I did ask if he can scrummage, we might need him. As it transpired he might have done a better job than some of those entrusted to keep Ireland's scrum solid. In the end, it didn't matter because Ireland's outside players caught fire and did not catch cold from the Armageddon that was going on in Ireland's tight play.

You can chalk this one up to the ladyboys. They caught fire yesterday and they played some scintillating rugby, admittedly against defensively limited opposition. But they took all their chances and they managed to create something out of nothing and worked some long-distance scores in from improbable positions. Whatever about the strengths and weaknesses of this Munster pack which plays in a green jersey, they were well bested yesterday and it was Les Folies Berges who managed to clock up 51 points without much help from those who employed them with the very honourable exception of David Wallace who yet again had a stunning game, particularly his first half.

As I made my way into the press box, I realised I was not in the press box and for the second time in the Six Nations championship I had to watch the game from row Z. There was actually no seat behind me. I was at the back of a stand. But this might not have been a bad place to be as Ireland managed to start putting points on the board. But an offensive malaise set in in the last 12 minutes and the pack could not secure any worthwhile possession, or else they could not control it for any longer than one or two phases. As this period of play continued, my mind began to wander. When you're playing helter skelter and taking chances, rush multiplies risk and Ireland began to take too many chances. The fundamentals are then ignored. The most basic one being protect your line. In those last few minutes of helter skelter, row Z was the place where the ball should have been.

I would gladly have caught it and held it for a few extra seconds.

De Marigny got in at the death. Would that be the difference between winning and losing the championship? We would see.

From the off, it looked like Ireland would need more than just mere patience to see them through this game.

The outstanding Bortolami picked off our first line-out ball and minutes later Italy rucked us off the ball as their physically superior and individually stronger tight eight began to flex their muscles.

Not long after that, the highly athletic Sergio Parisse put in a huge hit on Girvan Dempsey out wide. Shortly after that, Ireland's scrum was minced as they were shunted backwards. David Wallace, who only has forward gears in his gearbox, was picked up and dumped on his arse and to finish off a worrying first 10 from a tight perspective, Mick O'Driscoll was harried and pressured into a poor slap on the line-out. Stringer was unable to cope with it and Italy got into their first offensive foray of the match.

There was a great scene in the movie Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss gets a glimpse of the great white shark and he says: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

Ireland were seriously short on grunt in their front five. They say that graveyards are full of irreplaceable men but in this case there is one man who is irreplaceable. Ireland badly missed O'Connell's aggression, influence and awesome presence in the physical stakes. It was no surprise that Mick O'Driscoll was substituted after 50 minutes. He was way out of his depth.

Ireland did manage to win decent ball and were lucky in the sense that the sun was shining, the pitch was hard and there wasn't a wisp of wind. For the first time in the championship, they could play sexy football. The first try came more from applied intelligence rather than real brilliance and it just showed the great physicality of their outside backs in the sense that they were confident and strong enough to take the Italian tackling on their own terms and get the ball away in the tackle. D'Arcy made the first line break. He got the ball away out of the tackle to Hickie who managed to fend off his opposite number and again physically feed the ball out of the tackle to O'Driscoll. O'Driscoll burst onto the ball, again showing great sense of timing and placement and his short pass back to Dempsey, who had intelligently and patiently stayed wide on the touchline, got Ireland into the ascendancy.

Five minutes later, the Italians were rocked as they had been applying pressure. They had a scrum deep into Ireland's 22 and as they muscled into the hit, the ball eased its way back. They actually went forward to quickly and Parisse, for all his wonderful athleticism and footballing skills, couldn't trap the ball on his outside foot at the back of the scrum. I don't think Roma or Lazio will be signing him up any time soon for his one touch football skills.

Wallace eagerly picked the ball and took off on his travels, brilliantly holding it out in front in the tackle. O'Gara came onto him but was put to floor.

Amazingly, the first guy to get there and pick and go again was Wallace. He found Easterby who realised he had to transfer at pace. Horgan ran onto the ball and steamed down the wing. At this stage, De Marigny and Parisse were communicating well and were pointing out their intended tackles. But Horgan changed the whole vista as he decided to commit Parisse, who wasn't expecting it, and he took both Italian players out by stepping into them, having the knowledge and confidence in his own strength. Easterby had rounded him on the outside, he knew exactly what Horgan was capable of and waited patiently for the ball out of the tackle and rounded him to score. That made it 13-6. The Italians might have been disillusioned at conceding two tries given that they were well into the game and playing some good stuff. But they did not throw their hands in the air and they got their side of the scoreboard ticking over as Pez dropped two beautiful goals. It looked like this would be the half time score and you knew, as did the Italians, that they were well in this game as they picked off more ball from Ireland's line-out and pressurised their scrum. But just on half time, Ireland scored the decisive try. They've had good luck and bad luck in this championship and when good luck came their way, they grabbed it. Ireland's scrum was hooshed back. Stringer barely got the ball away to O'Gara. The chokee barely got his fingertips to it. His inside pass to Hickie was marginal. Ireland's free scoring winger managed to get his hands free and his pass back into D'Arcy was definitely forward, but he did well to step outside and eventually get the ball down. That put a huge amount of daylight on the scoreboard, one from which the Italians would never recover.

Ireland's third quarter was possibly their best quarter of the championship.

They seized the initiative and Hickie, Horgan and Dempsey cut loose. Their pace and intelligence was too much for the Italian cover.

After O'Gara's memorable try which made it 46-12, I would have been quite happy, great game as it was, for the final whistle to blow. Ireland had been too strong in the tackle and their defence too well organised for Italy.

The Italians managed eventually to make their pack power count and they controlled possession and field territory literally for the last quarter. Bortolami scored after Scanavacca cross kicked. It's rare that you see Ireland concede 12 points so cheaply. I don't think it was down to tiredness but they did get themselves into a little bit of a pickle, quite possibly the loss of O'Driscoll and his influence could have been a big factor.

And so, Ireland have had yet another excellent championship but we rate ambition by what it finished with, not by what it attempted. Congratulations to all and bad luck in the end.