Italy 24 Ireland 51:The booty and the World Cup psychological edge may have gone to the French, but this was a far-from-worthless Roman odyssey. In their last competitive outing before next September's global jamboree, and in similar conditions, this Irish team revelled in having the sun on their backs and cut themselves free from all shackles.

In style and content it was very reminiscent of the second period in Paris last year when they responded to a 43-3 deficit with a 28-point salvo in the last half-hour. Then they could afford to swing from the hip and here too the prize of becoming European champions appeared to take the pressure off.

Willing to take chances, alert to the possibility of running it from anywhere - the key was in a desire to explore where the space was and not only keep the ball alive whenever possible but also provide the support runners to back up that approach.

This was real heads-up rugby, and some of the interlinking between the Munster halves and the Leinster galacticos in reading and exploiting gaps in the Italians' all-or-nothing blitz defence provided the best back play of the tournament. Seven of the eight tries were scored by the backs, and allowing for the odd undetected forward pass or three, the finishing was simply top drawer.

Of all the teams who struggle to live with the kind of high tempo Ireland generated here, Italy probably would struggle the most, and it was noticeable how much they were taking injury time-outs - the match was 97 minutes long.

The offloading was the key, the official SAS stats crediting Ireland with 26 to three by Italy, but to the enthralled observer it seemed like that was just in one or two passages of play.

Apparently Denis Hickie's words were something of a catalyst, and he was as good as his word. His pacy support runs were always timed in such a way as to give the ball carrier offloading options or read which way they were going, while his running in broken play, as ever, was thrilling to behold.

Brian O'Driscoll, all ducking and weaving and low centre of gravity, clearly loved it until he was hamstrung on the hour; Gordon D'Arcy continued a truly phenomenal tournament; Girvan Dempsey joined in the fun and effortlessly scored a brace of tries; and Shane Horgan, having failed to put Hickie through a huge hole in the blue line in about Ireland's only missed opportunity of the match, grew more and more influential, always looking to offload.

Most of all though, there was still plenty of variety - unlike in Murrayfield.

Ronan O'Gara didn't ignore the vast tracts of open territory behind the Azzurri defence, while his hands were like flypaper, and he mixed in grubbers with cross-kicks, inside passes and long skip passes.

Peter Stringer's rapid-fire pass was made for days like this, and while some of David Wallace's ball-carrying was again breathtaking, Simon Easterby showed he has the support runs and hands to join in the fun.

Denis Leamy hit rucks, made tackles and gave a more selfless display. But it has to be said it was not a vintage day for the tight five or the Irish set plays.

The scrum was rarely a source of go-forward ball and but for a couple of costly mistakes by Sergio Parisse the much more aggressive Italian scrum would have reaped a bigger dividend. Paul O'Connell's lineout skills and ballast were badly missed.

Parisse actually started out as if he was going to beat Ireland on his own. Virtually all their attacking forays either originated from him or featured his astonishing skills-set prominently. Yet by the end, he had nothing left in his locker and was replaced.

With the Italian scrum rumbling ever more ominously just past the first quarter and seemingly set to turn their 6-8 deficit into a lead, it was Parisse's failure to control the ball at the base that allowed Wallace to steal possession and turn desperate defence into a thrilling counter-attacking try from deep.

In also opting, along with Roland de Marigny, to tackle Horgan, Parisse was the more culpable in therefore allowing the supporting Easterby to score untouched.

Superb back play having generated the first try by Dempsey, the killer for Italy was the score off the last play of the first half, off a retreating scrum that Stringer somehow cleared, O'Gara gathering off his toes and, mindful of the Italians having no genuine openside, passing inside to Hickie, who took a lovely line before feeding D'Arcy for, amazingly, only his fourth Test try.

Soon after the resumption, off an Italian scrum that Carlo Nieto and co had angled and shunted perfectly for the number eight to attack the blindside, Parisse's attempted offload to Kaine Roberston was intercepted by Hickie to end another ominous spell of Italian pressure with a pitch-length counterattack.

That broke their hearts and temporarily their resistance, a deft inside pass by O'Gara putting Dempsey over after D'Arcy had signalled Ireland's post-interval intent and Horgan had taken the ball up providing the first of a three-try, 19-point, third-quarter blitz.

O'Driscoll and Hickie having paved the way for Horgan to score, great footwork by Wallace and some rare go-forward mauling saw Stringer and O'Gara put incredible width on the ball for Hickie to score on the wraparound, O'Gara then following up a loose ball to calmly score after the midfield duo had gone to work.

Much is made of O'Connell's absence, and rightly so, but more has to be made of the squad and it's worth putting Ireland's relative health and overt reliance on the same core of players into context.

For example, when Ramiro Pez departed injured at half-time he became the Azzurri's 10th casualty of the tournament to add to the three missing before the Six Nations began.

Against that, in addition to O'Connell, Ireland lost their other talisman, attacking totem and captain on the hour mark just as they had run in their third try in a 16-minute salvo.

In tandem with his fellow backs, O'Driscoll was on fire at the time, clearly revelling in the Roman sun and the manner Ireland were really going for it.

His departure undoubtedly interrupted their momentum, Stringer brilliantly saving one try with a covering dive onto Andrea Scanavacca's grubber - which was as good as a score at the other end at that stage - only for Marco Bortolami to score off Scanavacca's cross-kick.

Indeed, Ireland went 18 minutes without scoring after O'Driscoll's loss, a famine compared to the relative feast prior to his departure, and were ultimately outscored 12-5 in that last quarter.

It would be difficult for any replacement to catch the mood of Ireland's play at the time, and the Azzurri pride and ability would surely have seen them come back into the game at some point.

The putative replacement most likely to seamlessly dovetail with an Irish team looking to offload the ball and locate space was, however, sitting in the stand. And it's entirely valid to ask how differently the final quarter might have panned out had Geordan Murphy been O'Driscoll's replacement.

That still doesn't feel right, even if most else did on this day.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 8 mins:O'Gara pen 0-3; 13:Pez drop goal 3-3; 16:Pez pen 6-3; 18:Dempsey try 6-8; 24:Easterby try 6-13; 28:Pez pen 9-13; 31:Pez drop goal 12-13; 40:D'Arcy try, O'Gara con 12-20 (half-time 12-20); 45:Dempsey try, O'Gara con 12-27; 52:Horgan 12-32; 55:Hickie try, O'Gara con 12-39; 60:O'Gara try, con 12-46; 73:Bortolami try 17-46; 78:Hickie try 17-51; 83:De Marigny try, Scanavacca con 24-51.

ITALY:R de Marigny (Cammi Calvisano); K Robertson (Arix Viadana), E Galon (Overmach Cariparma), M Bergamasco (Stade Français), M Pratichetti (Cammi Calvisano); R Pez (Bayonne), A Troncon (Clermont Auvergne); S Perugini (Stade Toulousain), C Festuccia (Gran Parma), C Nieto (Gloucester); S Dellapè (Biarritz Olympique), M Bortolami (Gloucester); A Zanni (Cammi Calvisano), M Zaffiri (Cammi Calvisano), S Parisse (Stade Français). Replacements:J Sole (Arix Viadana) for Zaffiri (4 mins); A Scanavacca (Cammi Calvisano) for Pez (half-time); F Staibano (Overmach Cariparma) for Perugini (54 mins); M Barbini (Benetton Treviso) for Galon (63 mins); V Bernabò (Cammi Calvisano) for Parisse (66 mins); Perugini for Nieto (68 mins); L Ghiraldini (Cammi Calvisano) for Festuccia (78 mins); P Griffen (Cammi Calvisano) for Troncon (80 mins).

IRELAND:G Dempsey (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, captain), G D'Arcy (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), M O'Driscoll (Munster); S Easterby (Llanelli), D Wallace (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements:T Hogan (Leinster) for M O'Driscoll (54 mins); A Trimble (Ulster) for B O'Driscoll (60 mins); J Flannery (Munster) for R Best (61 mins); S Best (Ulster) for Horan (66 mins); Horan for S Best (78 mins). Not used:N Best (Ulster), E Reddan (Wasps), P Wallace (Ulster).

Referee: J Kaplan(South Africa).