Ireland captain Rory Best says that a fast start against Italy was vital to help get the Aviva Stadium support behind them.
Best’s side had lost two and drawn one of their opening three 6 Nations games this season and impatience amongst supporters was growing.
But a quick start and a powerful opening led to a 25-3 half-time lead. The atmosphere inside the stadium became party-like in the second half on the way to a 58-15 win.
“We talked during the week about the atmosphere we can create here, people come here to support us and we have to give them something to shout about,” said the Ulster hooker, speaking to RTÉ Sport.
“We played with a lot of intensity from the start and the silly things we’d done in the Championship so far we put right today.
“We know that we have to do the simple things well - no secret to it. We were better at keeping the ball, clearing rucks, we were far better in their 22, which is something we’ve worked long and hard at.
“It’s a big part of our game and something we haven’t done well at this year.”
Man of the match Donnacha Ryan was delighted with the performance and the result and he’s already looking forward to the clash with Scotland next Saturday.
A win there could help ensure third place in the table, a reasonable return given the start Ireland had to the campaign.
“That was fantastic, especially at home. It will give the guys a lot of confidence because we had worked hard for the past two weeks,” said the Munster man.
Ryan (above) continued: “It was great to see all the things we did in training come off in the match. Momentum is massive and we know we have it in us. We have to keep building on today’s performance. We’re looking forward to having Scotland here again next week.”
Italy captain Sergio Parisse was left searching for the words to describe this 43-point defeat and he admitted that his team deserved to be hammered after such a poor performance.
“The score is really hard to take,” he said. “We played poorly and we deserved that scoreline. Ireland played at the good level. We let them play with good speed and it was difficult to defend against.
“It’s difficult to find words after this result. Really disappointed, but we have to keep going forward and build something for the future.
“We have a difficult match coming up next week (away to Wales). We’ll try to recover well, try to do our best in Cardiff and we must forget this match because it was terrible.”
