Learning curve: Italy coach Nick Mallett accepted that his side too often tried to attack off slow ball

YESTERDAY'S brief meeting of minds between Declan Kidney and the media in the bowels of Croke Park was pretty much in the image of the coach himself – low-key.

We knew, and he readily accepted, that the second half in particular hadn't been a thing of beauty, but there wasn't a mood for any verbal jousting. Kidney's gentle refusal to put exact percentages on the chances of several players being fit for Saturday's showdown at the Stade de France was about as hot and heavy as it got.

Anyway, the result extended the team's unbeaten run to a record 12 games and the win had never been in doubt, so there wasn't really that much to get into a lather about.

"Italy played a pressure game, and we know we have a lot of things to do," Kidney explained. "We rested over Christmas, so there was a small bit of rustiness there. We're delighted with the win, but we can't say we're overly excited with the performance."

Judging by the lack of interrogation, neither were the scribes. It was one of these things, a day when it was going well for a while, and then it ground to a disappointing halt.

To the coach's left, Brian O'Driscoll shrugged. As someone who has attended one or two funereal post-match press conferences in his time, this underwhelming display was nothing to get too upset about.

"I thought it was a good work-out. A game like that can be difficult to explain because you can't expect to click after just two weeks together since November. By the time we played South Africa, we had been together for four weeks. So there's no point getting frustrated, you have to take the positives out of it and move on."

And there were plenty of positives, insisted the captain who by his standards had a quiet game. "Our tempo in the first half was good. We pinched a fair bit of their line-out ball, and there were some good line-breaks, but we just couldn't finish them off."

O'Driscoll wasn't getting too exercised either about the tackle that saw the Italy centre, Gonzalo Garcia, sent to the bin during the first half. "The tackle looked worse than it was, there wasn't an awful lot in it. I didn't feel in any danger in any shape or form."

Although Italy coach, Nick Mallett, wasn't prepared to have a pop off referee, Romain Poite, who probably should have given Garcia a warning rather than a yellow card, his disappointment with the decision was only thinly disguised.

"We know referees are going to be strict on those sort of tackles," said Mallett with a diplomatic pause before returning to the game itself. "Our line-outs were a big disappointment. It's hard to compete if you lose half your own throws. That's the first time that's happened since I took over as coach.

"We needed to get more front-foot ball, you just can't attack from slow ball. Ireland probably have the best backline in Europe and they also were frustrated by a lack of front-foot ball. They struggled in the second half.

At 23-8, we could have conceded two or three more tries, I was proud of the way the players performed."

On the injury front, Kidney didn't think he'd be losing any sleep about injuries to Ronan O'Gara [knee], Paul O'Connell [eye] and Andrew Trimble [tight hamstring] who were all replaced during the second half. "I wouldn't be overly concerned, I'd imagine they'll all be training on Monday," he added.

Questioned about Saturday's game against France, he said both Donncha O'Callaghan and Jonathan Sexton were "mobile" and "certainly not ruled out", while Stephen Ferris, who is still troubled by a knee injury, was a wait-and-see situation.