Squad competition puts Ireland in 'great place' - Lowe

James Lowe says Ireland are in a "great place" with massive competition among the squad.

Head coach Andy Farrell made six changes to his starting line-up from the team that accounted for France and another five new faces were added to the bench.

The new-look side completely dominated during the course of a Six Nation six-try hammering of Italy on Sunday afternoon.

While the likes of Peter O'Mahony, Bundee Aki and Tadhg Furlong were not considered due to injury, Tadhg Beirne was rested, Jamison Gibson-Park and Josh van der Flier started on the bench as Farrell handed starting berths to Stuart McCloskey, Craig Casey, Finlay, Bealham, James Ryan, Jack Conan and Ryan Baird.

The battle for squad places bodes well, reckons Lowe, named man of the match against the Azzurri.

"[We’re doing] pretty good," said the 31-year-old wing.

"We’d a fair few changes this week and boys who played very well in France weren’t picked this week and boys who came into the group really put their hands up and showed why they are internationals.

"We are happy with where we are sitting, it’s a pretty good position to be in.

"Happy with the performance, collectively we were on it today. Set-piece, absolutely dominated, it’s nice when you get a platform like that two weeks in a row, it sort of makes your job easier."

Lowe scored Ireland’s fifth try and made four clean breaks for 113 metres with ball in hand.

However, he acknowledged that, despite the comprehensive nature of the victory, including keeping Italy scoreless, there were aspects of the performance that had to be analysed in more details.

He said: "I don’t know [if I sounded disappointed post-match]. We were pretty happy with the result, I guess. We’ve still got to look at the game and see why wasn’t it