Stevie’s song sets the tone for boss Andy

know if he was standing with his mother or not but when I soon realised that the other lady wasn’t his mother and she was singing the national anthem for the Italians, his confidence was amazing!

“I was saying, ‘I wish our lads are going to be like this’. He’s got his shoulders back, he was ready. He was waving to the crowd, stood there on his own. I thought, ‘This kid’s got it all’. He was amazing. He nailed it, didn’t he? It was a great start.”

Ireland – under the leadership of Caelan Doris (below) – got off the mark in the eighth minute through Jack Crowley’s first Test try and were 19-0 up at the break. Dan Sheehan scored either side of half-time and overall

Farrell (above) was content with the afternoon’s work.

Wales are up next in the Aviva

Stadium in just under a fortnight but full-back Hugo

Keenan may need a knee scan after suffering an injury early in the second half yesterday.

“Obviously with two from two and maximum points etc, 36-0 is a nice scoreline for us,” Farrell said. “It’s a better scoreline than 56 points to 20, if you know what I mean. To put on a performance like that, I thought we were clinical at times. Our set piece was excellent, top drawer.

“Then scoring some nice tries off the back of all that type of pressure was very pleasing to get over the line. Two from two. It’s a decent start. It gets tougher from here on in.”

Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada, who previously coached with Argentina and with Jaguares in Super Rugby, claimed Ireland played like New Zealand by emphatically putting the game to bed.

“It was like the All Blacks from some years ago when they do their basics and they had a 100% return from their scrum and their lineout and at high balls,” Quesada said.

“They were also running their rucks in attack and defence with extreme efficiency so there was nothing we didn’t expect in terms of level of performance. They did what we know they can do. The frustration is more that we didn’t put a bit more pressure on them.”