George Hook: Johnny Sexton's a must if we are to see off French

HoW The Irish management and players came up with the usual cliches after the game. "We knew Italy would be tough and we would have to break them down," went the refrain. Sadly, the reality was far from that. Italy would field a full complement of players and were awful in every area, defence apart. That said, Ireland did not ask too many questions in attack and were incredibly one-dimensional.