"Yeah, it was physical, but that was down to the conditions," said Ireland number eight Anthony Foley. "So it had to be up close and personal."

The imagery of battle was rarely far from the lips of the players after the Italians left them bruised and - in the case of flanker Keith Gleeson - in hospital. It is in games like these, when a week of tactical planning is turned on its head by a howling gale which demands an entirely new agenda hours before kick-off, that there was a satisfaction in Ireland's ability to adapt and stay disciplined. Still, that couldn't prevent Ronan O'Gara from occasionally looking like a spin bowler.

"It really wasn't on to the move the ball wide," added Foley. "In the second half, when we were playing into the wind, it was a lot easier than when we were playing with it. It was just blowing away from us the whole time. There were a lot of mistakes.

"You do get a bit frustrated, but you have to stick with it and you have to understand that patience was the key out there for us. It was victory at any cost."

As analysts go, few equal Ireland's Eddie O'Sullivan. Control and planning are his addictions. This was a day to torment him. Nature, full of spite and unpredictable, won out. The coaching triumph was the ability to change things on the hoof.

"We had thought about the conditions and we'd been well flagged that they'd be bad," the coach said. "I felt we had a game plan, but the conditions even got worse. We did need to move the ball away from the Italian pack early on to try and soften the gain line, and any time we tried to do that we just couldn't get the ball from nine to 10.

"It was a high-risk strategy, so after 10 or 15 minutes we decided that the only thing to do was to take them on up front at their own game. Not the ideal game-plan under the conditions and against Italy, but I suppose there was no other way to do it.

"In fairness to the pack, they really buckled down to the job. I thought the try in the second half was a reflection of that, and we might have had another one if we'd been a bit lucky, but I'm very happy. Three tries in those conditions was a good return."

The ugly nature of the contest and the feel of trench warfare was one thing, but frustration could have weighed heavily on Ireland, especially in the first half when territorial dominance was yielding nothing.

"The first 20 minutes of the game, we'd played all the rugby and we'd probably been inside their 22 for most of that time, and we had been fingertips away from a couple of tries," O'Sullivan said. "I felt at that stage we needed one of those to go our way, and they didn't. You could be forgiven for getting a bit concerned and the players a bit frustrated. But they stuck to their task.

"Malcolm's try was a bit fortuitous, but it was good play on his part and nothing more than we deserved. Then Brian tagged on the second try and that settled the ship a bit."

After the break, Italy showed their hand after several wind-assisted kicks to the Irish corners, and their pack continued to press its physicality, so Ireland again changed tactics.

"At half-time we knew the job was far from done and all they needed was a score early in the second half, so we said we'd hang on to the ball for as long as we could and kind of frustrate them as much as we could and wait for the break," said O'Sullivan.

"We did get the break when Shane scored under the posts. I think that really nailed the game. At that stage I think that Italy started to believe that this really wasn't their day.

"But there was still a lot of work to do and there was still half an hour on the clock and they were going to come after us, so the defence was crucial. We defended really, really well for long phases. This Italian side are more physical than England. Every tackle was a car wreck, so I think we did a good job overall."

In the middle of it all was Reggie Corrigan. Grazed and bashed, he too placed Italy's tremors high on the Richter scale.

"I certainly felt the game was a lot more physical than the English game in many ways," said the prop. "I don't know if the tackling was harder, but, yeah, it was very physical and was as tough."