'We started to overplay it a little bit' - Farrell says there's a lot to learn from Italy win

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says there is plenty that Ireland can learn, despite the facile nature of their 57-6 Guinness Six Nations win against Italy this afternoon.

Ireland ran in nine tries against the Italians to consign them to their 100th defeat in the championship and 35th in a row.

However, the contest was especially lopsided by Ireland's numerical advantage, which saw Italy reduced to 13 players after just 18 minutes.

After substitute hooker Hame Faiva was red-carded for a dangerous tackle on Ireland's Dan Sheehan, the Italians were forced to declare uncontested scrums, with Favia having been a replacement for the injured Gianmarco Lucchesi.

The laws of the game dictate that when uncontested scrums are a result of a red card, the offending team must lose a further player, a measure brought in to prevent teams from cynically manufacturing it.

"It's just weird", Farrell said after the game.

"We understand why the rule was brought in but at the same time I suppose, in situations like that, occasions like that, it'll bring the rule back to everyone's attention and they'll look at it."

With Ireland having a two man advantage for three quarters of the game, their win seemed inevitable and they eventually scored nine tries despite blowing hot and cold throughout.

"Rightly, Italy were trying to slow the game down, it's what everyone would have done. When you've got uncontested scrums for so long in the game, everyone's legs are nice and fresh and it's the reason Italy were tenacious in defence, even when they went to 12 men.

"The space that you think is there, they're going to throw caution to the wind and kamikaze-style defence at times, flying off the line and hitting us man-and-ball, putting our skills under pressure,