You can only assume the referee didn't fully see it. When the replays were screened at Lansdowne Road, the howls of derision indicated referee Rob Dickson had chosen the wrong coloured card to show to Italian prop Salvatore Perugini after his bull charge at Peter Stringer - one that ended with the Italian clearly head-butting his opponent.

A little later it was the turn of outhalf Diego Dominguez, who when Stringer tried to retrieve the ball for a scrum, the Italian wheeled around with his elbow to burnish the other side of the Shannon player's face.

"I dunno' if they targeted me," said Stringer. "I think if you target players, the scrumhalf or the outhalf are the ones to do, so whether they did today, well I certainly kinda felt they did at times.

"The first one there was a ruck and the whistle blew. He (Perugini) came at me from the left side and from the left corner of my eye I just saw him. I just kinda backed away a bit. He caught me on my jaw. It was sore enough to start. But there was no concussion or anything. That's really all I remember of it.

"Dominguez . . . I just tried to get the ball and got an elbow in the face for my troubles. But sure these things happen. I remember the match for the win rather than the other things that happened."

It was a match dominated by the Irish players feeling two distinct reactions: one, that they had been in a significant physical encounter, and the second that they need to step it up against France. Stringer's red jaw was matched by the rawer face of Simon Easterby, while Anthony Foley felt Italy are probably the most robust side in the championship.

"They are by far the most physical side in the Six Nations," said Foley. "They seemed to pick on Strings. He can take it. He just gets back up and gets going again. We're quite happy with the way things went because it was so physical."

Easterby, a little more critical, also knew what his body was telling him. "We were quite hard on ourselves after the game because we let in a couple of tries and were disappointed in the defensive aspect of the game.

"But they're a tougher side than what people give them credit. They were a physically tougher side than either Wales or Scotland. It took us a little bit to realise that during the game."

Ireland were to blame for it all, according to Italian coach, Kiwi Brad Johnstone.

"I think it was part of their game plan to agitate the Italians," said Johnstone. "Then obviously the retaliator always gets penalised."

On the Stringer incidents, Johnstone went further. "And he deserved it," he said.

Eddie O'Sullivan rejected Johnstone's assertions on targeting the brittle Italian temperament, but they met on common ground in other aspects.

"We went out today to play rugby and I think we did that. We just defended very well. You have to expect physical games that are played on the gain line toe-to-toe.

"Now we go to Paris for our last game, a very big event, a world-class team at home. It's going to be a difficult day for us."

Stringer is acutely aware of that.

"Against France, yeah, I think we have to pick it up. We didn't really get into the game as well as we thought we should have. But we know what we are trying to do and today the Italians just got in our faces."