Ireland boss Farrell pleased as defending Six Nations champions ease past Italy

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was pleased to see his side keep Italy scoreless and claim an impressive 36-0 win as their bid for a second consecutive Six Nations Grand Slam continued.

First-half tries from Jack Crowley, Dan Sheehan and Jack Conan set the hosts on their way to a commanding win at the Aviva Stadium. 

A second from hooker Sheehan continued Ireland's dominance after the break before Player of the Match James Lowe scored the pick of the bunch, with Calvin Nash rounding off the six-try victory. 

Farrell went on to hail his men for keeping Italy scoreless — but believes there is still some room for improvement.

He told ITV Sport: "We're happy enough and we got what we wanted in the game with a bonus-point win. 

"Keeping them to zero is very pleasing and there were some nice tries out there and some nice performances by individuals. 

"I thought we were trying to be too tidy at times, just playing with shape when we broke them down with a bit of individual brilliance. 

"We need to back ourselves a little bit more as far as that is concerned. We looked dangerous." 

Farrell made six changes to the side that beat France in Marseille — although that did not stop Ireland from dismantling their opponents. 

Lowe was in agreement with his head coach, believing there is some fine-tuning that needs to be done ahead of their next Six Nations test against Wales in Dublin on February 24. 

The Leinster winger said: "It's nice to be back home and we're pleased with the result but obviously there are a few things we need to work on. 

"We probably put ourselves under pressure with mistakes and compounding errors and that's not OK so going forward, it's what we have to work on as we can't give teams that easy access."