Brian O'Driscoll insisted there were plenty of positives to take from Ireland's comfortable, if stuttering, 29-11 win over Italy.
Skipper confident of improvement to come
Ireland skipper Brian O'Driscoll insisted there were plenty of positives to take from his side's comfortable if stuttering 29-11 RBS Six Nations win over Italy.
The holders made a pleasing enough start to the contest at Croke Park and forged ahead through first-half tries from Jamie Heaslip and Tomas O'Leary.
However, they rather lost momentum in the second period and had to settle for just a couple of further penalties although they ultimately emerged victorious with something to spare.
O'Driscoll admitted his side were "rusty" after only coming together late and will need a major improvement when they take on France in Paris next Saturday.
"I think it was a good workout," he stated. "It's not easy to click immediately having only been together for two weeks and not having played together since November.
"There is plenty to improve on. It's the first one and job done. We'll take the positives out of it and move on.
"We showed an ability in the first half to turn defence into attack and the amount of line-out ball we won was a big plus.
"We made some good line breaks but didn't finish them off. Maybe we need to improve our support play."
Kidney pleased
Coach Declan Kidney echoed O'Driscoll's sentiments after the match, adding: "We definitely know we have a lot of things to do but we took a conscious decision not to come together until late.
"There was a small bit of rustiness. We're delighted with the win. If you look at it compared to last year's game, there is not a lot of difference.
"We were trying things in the second half but we didn't manage to get any pace into the game."
Mallett proud of defence
Italy coach Nick Mallett insisted he was pleased with his side's second-half showing when they managed to prevent Italy from notching any further tries after a rather one-sided opening period.
"At 23-8 at half-time there was a real possibility we could have conceded a lot more tries, especially with the ball Ireland had in the second half," the South African declared.
"But the fact we didn't was down to some fantastic defence and it's something I'm really proud of."Ireland are a very good side. They're very pragmatic and have got a very good set of backs, probably the best backline in Europe. It was our job not to give them ball.
"They played very well in the first half and took their opportunities. They were trying to score tries in the second half but I'm very proud of the way our guys defended."
Mallett admitted he would be looking to improve his side's line-out after they lost possession from seven of their own throws and stole just one Ireland line-out.
"That was the biggest disappointment," he continued. "There was a variety of reasons - some were poor calls - but it's very tough to be competitive if you lose 50% of your line-out.
"It's not something that's been a problem for me but it's an area we're going to have to look at."
