Patience, control, discipline and concentration — Ireland’s coaches offered an approving nod from the touchline at a solid job professionally achieved by their men on a golden winter’s afternoon in Rome.

You cannot argue with a five tries to nil score line, two individual performances (by Paul O’Connell and Rob Kearney) which had Lions class written all over them, and an Italian first half storm which was calmly and solidly rebuffed.

Ireland return home this morning justified in quiet satisfaction at the important blocks they are building in what they hope may be a Grand Slam year.

There are no false boasts, no fluffing up of feathers among Ireland’s rugby men. But their dedication to the task at hand and their determination to see the job through is becoming very apparent.

The Irish defence had to be committed, durable and rigid in concentration in the first half to keep the Italians out. 38-9 might sound like a rout and in the end it was. But that first half was different. Italy hammered away at times and the Irish rearguard, in which Ulster’s Stephen Ferris (below) was again highly industrious, had to earn its corn.

But when the time came to turn the screw, Ireland did it with brutal effectiveness. Italy led 9-7 in the last moments of the first half and were desperate to take a lead into the half-time break. But the Irish broke them, physically and mentally, with Luke Fitgerald’s first try in injury time, made for him by a typical Ferris blast around the fringes.

That gave Ireland a 14-9 interval lead and Italy were never the same side in the second half.

Even coach Declan Kidney admitted Ireland were lucky to get their first try, although Tommy Bowe took it superbly in a 65 metre sprint to the line.

But it was more the general commitment to the cause, the willingness to work calmly through adversities such as Ronan O’Gara’s sin binning late in the first half, and the overall sense that they remained composed that was most impressive about this Irish performance.

Kidney wisely refused to get carried away in the light of his team’s second successful step along what could be the road to a Grand Slam decider against Wales in Cardiff on the final day of the season. He was even reluctant to forecast likely events against England in Dublin on Saturday week, saying: “We cannot be so arrogant as to say what sort of a game we would hope to impose on England. Rugby matches at this level are not like that.”

No-one in the Irish camp was going overboard and that’s the best news of all. Too many Irish sides of the past have been celebrating Grand Slams before half the season was over. This squad isn’t like that and they’re stronger for it.

Ireland won 47 balls in their opponents’ 22 to just three by the Italians in the same position, a revealing statistic. But Ireland’s supremacy was obvious far from the statistics board.

Kearney was simply a colossus at the back, his excellence matched by Paul O’Connell up front. O’Connell asks nothing of any man that he isn’t prepared to do himself, a quality that may well earn him the Lions captaincy this summer.

But the general work ethic throughout the side and what Brian O’Driscoll called the good mix between youth and experience in the team, is serving Ireland mighty well at present. Bring on England at Croke Park on Saturday week.