They came, they saw, they laboured

Italy - 17 Ireland - 28: Ireland duly came, saw and conquered for the third successive time at the Stadio Flaminio, but this was a far from impressive launch to a campaign which promises so much. Once again it came down to the cutting edge of their match winners out wide and their ability to beat opponents one on one though, overall, the opening jousts will have served to dampen the feverish optimism. Which may be no bad thing.

Despite having talked the talk all week, Ireland seemed almost casual about the way they set about the game, or at any rate were taken aback by the way it evolved. It didn't help that Ronan O'Gara struggled to cope with the Italians' Mitre ball and could scarcely buy a touch kick.

Astonishingly, he missed seven in the first-half alone - surely an unwanted and unprecedented landmark for the Irish outhalf, and to leave him bewildered going into the interval, he'd just kicked his second out on the full.

There were some honourable exceptions to such a fluctuating performance collectively. Malcolm O'Kelly, on the day he equalled the Irish all-time record for caps, had a stormer, getting his elongated frame around the pitch to telling effect. Brian O'Driscoll was the sharpest player on the pitch, nearly everything Geordan Murphy did he did with a touch of class, and Shane Horgan ran and worked strongly, but with the Irish backrow utterly eclipsed by their Italians at the breakdown, Ireland had little shape or pattern to their performance.

By contrast, the Azzurri had plenty of shape and pattern, but little in the way of end product. First and foremost, the search for a long-term successor to Diego Dominguez continues. How they could have done with the little general here, albeit at his peak.

John Kirwan's punt on the inexperienced little Padova standoff Luciano Orquera, the ninth to try out the number 10's boots since Dominguez first retired in 2000, didn't really pay off. It would at least have helped his industrious pack no end if he could have nailed his goals, but he missed three attempted penalties - two of them horribly struck - and Roland de Marigny ultimately took over the duties with greater success.

Orquera also had a tendency, along with those outside him, to run across field and the supposed decoy runners did little to check the drifting Irish defence. Gamely try though they might, there wasn't the hint of them actually scoring any tries.

Nonetheless, their lineout maul and scrum kept them going forward. After a two-minute opening passage punctuated by O'Gara's first three missed touches and a Murphy "mark", the Azzurri pack's first big lineout rumble earned a close-range penalty which Marco Bortolami might have been better advised to kick to the corner.

Instead, they went for the difficult angled kick which Orquera, in only his second Test start, missed. However, when Reggie Corrigan was pinged for popping up a scrum, Orquera did open the scoring from in front of the posts.

Ireland couldn't get a foothold in the game, an ironic cheer greeting O'Gara's first touchfinder at the seventh attempt in the 19th minute. But when Ireland finally went wide off a lineout, they easily outflanked the Italians' four-up defence for Shane Horgan to make good yardage wide out, and though the ball was slow, the Italians didn't regroup behind the offside line in time for O'Gara to open his account and level the scores.

It would be a portent of things to come from another lineout on the opposite flank. Moving left to right after the maul had been held up but had tucked in the Italian backrow, O'Driscoll arced around Gonzalo Canale at pace with Denis Leamy as decoy and straightened, Murphy sprinting up to receive and score adroitly by grounding the ball over his right shoulder as winger Ludovico Nitoglia dragged him toward touch.

De Marigny did assume the goal-kicking duties to peg Ireland back to 8-6 after O'Kelly was penalised for handling in a ruck and the second-half continued in much the same fashion as the first (O'Gara even missing a penalty to touch).

Horgan ghosted in off his wing to make a clean line break off a lineout move but Leamy couldn't grab hold of the offload while tackled. When Horgan went up the middle from Ireland's own 22 off another lineout the cavalry were slow to arrive and make their presence felt, as Persico legitimately scooped the ball off the deck and earned a turnover penalty with which de Marigny put Italy in front.

Whereupon Ireland struck stealthily again. In a reprise of the first try, O'Driscoll again arced around Canale, handing him off en route, and by the time Andrea Masi nabbed him he had linked with Denis Hickie. Horgan was up in support, and had the wit to fire a high pass over his left shoulder as he was being run in to touch. Fortunately, the ball fell invitingly for Stringer to run in the score.

O'Gara and de Marigny traded penalties, the latter again after Persico had stolen Irish ruck ball. The Azzurri upped the tempo in a crunch spell of pressure. At last running straighter in the backs, where Canale took the ball up, and then back on the blind side through Santiago Dellape, Nitoglia latched on to Alessandro Troncon's box kick between Hickie and Murphy but just failed to ground the ball.

Ireland survived a concerted shove on their own put in and O'Kelly stole unattended ruck ball for Stringer to find a 50 metre touch. O'Gara landed another penalty and for once Ireland pilfered ruck ball, Stringer finding Murphy who had the vision to see Hickie's supporting run inside with the offload for the winger to score.

Deservedly, the Azzurri pack mauled over the Irish line off a tap penalty by Persico for Leandro Castrogiovanni to claim the try. It was fitting too, for you always felt it was the only way they were going to score.

Scoring sequence: 8 mins: Orquera pen, 3-0; 21: O'Gara pen 3-3; 25: Murphy try, 3-8; 37: de Marigny pen, 6-8; Half-time: 6-8); 44: de Marigny pen, 9-8; 50: Stringer try, O'Gara con 9-15; 55: O'Gara pen 9-18; 63: de Marigny pen 12-18; 79: O'Gara pen 12-21; 82: Hickie try, O'Gara con 12-28; 87: Castrogiovanni try 17-28.

ITALY: R de Marigny (Overmarch Parma); Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Français), G Canale (Benetton Treviso), A Masi (Arix Viadana), L Nitoglia (Ghial Amatori & Calvisano); L Orquera (Carrera Petrarca Padova), A Troncon (Benetton Treviso); A Lo Cicero (Conad L'Aquila Rugby), F Ongaro (Benetton Treviso), L Castrogiovanni (Ghial Amatori & Calvisano), S Dellape (Agen), M Bortolami (Narbonne, capt), A Persico (Agen), Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Français), S Parisse (Benetton Treviso). Replacements: C A Del Fava (Overmarch Parma) for Dellape (69 mins), P K Robertson (Arix Viadana) for Canale (67 mins), S Perugini (Ghial Amatori & Calvisano) for Lo Cicero (85 mins), G Intoppa (Ghial Amatori & Calvisano) for Ongaro (85 mins), D Dal Maso (Benetton Treviso) for Parisse (85 mins). Not used: P Travagli (Arix Viadana), W Pozzebon (Benetton Treviso).

IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); S Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock College, capt), G D'Arcy (Leinster/Lansdowne), D Hickie (Leinster/St Mary's College); R O'Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Munster/Shannon); R Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), S Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), J Hayes (Munster/Bruff), M O'Kelly (Leinster/St Mary's College), P O'Connell (Munster/Young Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), D Leamy (Munster/Cork Constitution), A Foley (Munster/Shannon). Replacements: G Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure College) for D'Arcy (33 mins), M Horan (Munster/Shannon) for Corrigan (63 mins), F Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution) for Byrne, D O'Callaghan (Munster/Cork Constitution) for O'Connell, E Miller (Leinster/Terenure College) for Foley (all 87 mins). Not used: G Easterby (Leinster/Blackrock College), D Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon).

Referee: P O'Brien (New Zealand).