Ireland v Italy Reaction: "Can I miss this badly?" Ronan O'Gara asked Jonathan Kaplan as he lined up a penalty directly in front of the posts.

Point being Rob Kearney was all alone, prowling the left touchline. The South African referee was unequivocal in his response: "Absolutely not, Ronan."

Ireland's only recognised outhalf was back on form, repeatedly producing a spark of ingenuity to stave off these dogged and sometimes downright-vicious opponents. His cross-kicks opened up the Italians early on before they got wise to the trick.

It was a strange old day. At one stage a power cut in the stadium had radio reporters scrambling across to the local newsagents to stock up on batteries. They didn't miss much.

Very little was expected from the post-match press conferences either. At least with Nick Mallet you are guaranteed a cliché-free, honest assessment of what just transpired.

Granted, Italy's new coach is in a pressure-free zone at present (not having a recognised outhalf helps).

After a tiresome translation process we eventually got down to business. Did the better team win? "I think they created many more attacking opportunities than we did," said the former Springbok coach.

"From a territorial point of view they definitely had more than we did. On that basis they deserved to win but rugby is a very, very strange game.

"What is crucial is to stay in touch. When you are within five points in the last 10 minutes there is a possibility of an interception try, a kick ahead, a dropped pass. You can lose a game very quickly like that.

"We hung in there and didn't concede too many penalties." (Ireland conceded 11 to Italy's eight but Eddie O'Sullivan was to address that issue.)

Then a bizarre question from an Italian journalist who clearly had never spent a teenage summer learning English in Dublin: "Mallet, do you believe that Italy can win without feet in rugby?

"Without feet? Without kicking? Nothing wrong with our kicking," Mallet replied. "Our number nine kicked very well. Our 15 kicked fine. O'Gara is one of the best kickers of the ball in the world. In Italy if you can find me person who can kick give him to me."

If fullback David Bortolussi had not missed two from four attempts, Italy would have drawn.

Their inspirational captain and number eight, Sergio Parisse, felt at 16-11 that Ireland "were scared of losing at this stage. When O'Gara missed that shot we decided we would play right to the very last minute.

"We played with our heart and soul. Yes, there were errors but we don't have any regrets."

O'Sullivan's media offerings have become predictable. The favourite excuse from the World Cup was rolled out again, a lack of match practice cited, it being the opening game of the Six Nations. Traditionally this is a difficult Irish fixture.

Kaplan also came under scrutiny for how he refereed the breakdown in the second half.

"I'm very slow to criticise the referee. It's the wrong thing to do. I don't know if it was down to our lack of accuracy or they were getting a bit more latitude. It's not our form. We are a team of six or seven penalties a match. Our discipline is very good. We got on the wrong side of him."

Malcolm O'Kelly, all 92 caps of him, shed further light on the malfunctioning performance.

"Certainly in the first half we were a little bit shy of players to rucks. Guys maybe getting the ball in hand rather than doing the hard work. In the second half it was just tough calls. A forward pass against us when Girvan (Dempsey) was almost through. Geordan's (Murphy's) pass behind Girvan earlier. These are small things we hope on another day wouldn't happen."

Another notable aspect of the match was the off-the-ball antics that have become an Italian calling card. At one stage a Mauro Bergamasco headlock prompted a prolonged wrestling match with Donncha O'Callaghan. "I remember looking down and Donncha seemed to have it sorted so I got back in the defensive line. It's a very heated environment but nothing major," said O'Kelly

The fractured wrist Gordon D'Arcy sustained means Ireland lose a centre but the Clongowes quota was maintained by his replacement, Kearney.

"I'm his room-mate so I'll probably have a bit more space but it's tough on Gordon," added O'Kelly. "Rob Kearney is a fantastic player. I was talking to him afterwards and he just loved it. He said that's the arena he wants to be in."

Hard to unearth any more positives really, unless you are associated with Newbridge College as for the last 10 minutes they had four old boys on the field in Geordan Murphy, Bernard Jackman, Tony Buckley and Jamie Heaslip.

This brought the Six Nations debuts, including Kearney's, up to four.

At least that's something.