That was a very satisfying performance in the end. 42-8, 5 tries and 5 points is hard to argue with.
It was said in one of the early posts in this threat that little can be learned from a game like this. I wholeheartedly disagree. We saw Jamie Hagan outperform Nathan White at tighthead. We saw Collie O'Shea and Noel Reid show nice touches at 12 and grasp the opportunity better than Eamonn Sheridan did last year. A try for John Cooney should boost his confidence after he looked shaky earlier in the season. We saw Dave Kearney make a massive impact off the bench whereas Darren Hudson was quiet. We saw elements of Ian Madigan's game that need to be worked on (he took on far too much ball in the last 20 minutes). We saw Rhys Ruddock show a lack of control from the back of a scrum which must be worked on. We saw Brendan Macken look very good with ball in hand but perhaps not look to pass enough. We saw the young front row which finished the game do a job on the Treviso front row. There was lots of game time for a whole host of inexperienced players. Some grasped it better than others. That won't be lost on Joe Schmidt.
Based on today, I'd be more inclined to give a contract to Collie O'Shea and Noel Reid than Eamonn Sheridan. Tom Sexton would be ahead of Aaron Dundon if there's a decision to be made on who the third hooker in the squad is. Jamie Hagan made a case to be the second choice tighthead behind Mike Ross. Darren Hudson may have fallen down the depth chart. Rhys Ruddock showed again that he's not an 8. Reservations about Ian Madigan's ability to lead a backline diminished further.
Next week against the Scarlets hopefully we'll see them take another step up. I imagine Dave Kearney, Fergus McFadden, Eoin O'Malley, Jamie Hagan and Rhys Ruddock will come into the starting XV.
