Although the conundrum of how to replace the injured Robbie Henshaw at centre for the remainder of the Six Nations is a headache for the Ireland coaching staff, the mood music in terms of performance after the Italy game on Saturday was generally positive.
Joe Schmidt's side ran in eight tries to swat aside the Azzurri but it's the other end of the pitch that concerns former Ireland head coach Eddie O'Sullivan after a sloppy second half in defence.
He told Joe on Monday Night Rugby: "The worrying take-away was that our defence gave up three tries. We got deconstructed three times by Italy who again - let's be honest here - there's bigger stress tests coming against our defence from Wales and from Scotland and from England.
"So the problem with the Italy test is we got the job done but I don't think we were ever going to be wiser at the back of end of Italy to be quite frank with you because the stress tests on our defence and our attack, I didn't believe were going to be there. The only take-away for me is that I'm a little bit worried with our defence after Italy because three tries against Italy is not a good outing."
Eddie also addressed the question marks about Italy's place in the Six Nations and whether there should be promotion/relegation and whether Georgia for example could hold their own.
"The question is if they (Georgia) could pitch up in a Six Nations over seven weeks and do any better than Italy do but that's questionable," he said.
