Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll was relieved to see his side into the World Cup quarter-finals with a 36-6 victory over Italy.
Skipper looking forward to Wales clash
Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll was relieved to see his side into the World Cup quarter-finals with a 36-6 victory over Italy.
The Irish needed the win to secure a date with Wales in the last eight next weekend and three second-half tries settled the nerves.
They turned round 9-6 up at the break thanks to a trio of penalties from fly-half Ronan O'Gara, who kicked 16 points in all before being replaced by rival stand-off Jonathan Sexton.
And they pulled away decisively early in the second period thanks to tries from O'Driscoll and Keith Earls, who added a second try and Ireland's third late on to celebrate his 24th birthday in style.
Clinical
"We're very pleased with the way we've come through the pool in first place," said O'Driscoll. "We didn't bring results into this World Cup but we never panicked.
"We came here with big belief in our ability and what we're capable of and we've managed to deliver a couple of times.
"We've got ourselves in a place where we're playing Wales for a place in the semi-finals and that's all we could have hoped for at this stage.
"We knew it would take a good while to grind Italy down and we were clinical in the chances we took.
"There was a distinct pressure on us to perform because it was win or go home. When it's that cut and dry your backs are against the wall.
"There was definitely an added element of pressure, but we responded well to it."
Looking ahead to the quarter-final against Wales, O'Driscoll admitted it would be tough to call the winner.
"The games have been incredibly close over the last, eight years, certainly in my career," he said.
"They've beaten us in Dublin, we've beaten them in Cardiff, it will be an incredibly close game. It will just be that team that plays a bit better on the day, there's not much between the sides."
Hope
Coach Declan Kidney refused to get carried away after Ireland progressed from the group stage, something they failed to do four years ago.
"We've got ourselves into a place where we're playing Wales for a semi-final place and that's all you could hope for at this stage," he said.
"After playing three games in the wet being indoors allowed us to play a bit more like we do in training.
"It took a while to break them down but we made them work hard and then took our chances."
Departing Italy coach Nick Mallett said Ireland, who lost all their four warm-up matches, could go on to a first World Cup final appearance.
"Ireland didn't come into his World Cup as big favourites, they lost four games. Ireland targeted Australia as a big game, they targeted us a big game.
"They've got a team that can knock over anyone in that side of the draw, in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, where is their weakness?
"They were outstanding. We had to play really well to stay in touch but then their backs began to control the game incredibly well."
