By kick-off at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday the strong, biting wind that had chilled Dublin all morning had moved on, and with it, you felt, went Italy’s best chance of containment.

But if conditions were ideal for the home team to generate a turbo boost to their points-difference column it was nothing compared to the bizarre gift of Italy being reduced to 13 men by the end of the first quarter. For those who came along in search of entertainment the afternoon had lost its attraction. What unfolded thereafter was awful stuff.

Yes, Ireland had their bonus point sorted by the 38th minute, but by that stage they seemed to be struggling as much as their opponents with the state of play. Italy’s predicament was caused by the loss of two hookers: first Gianmarco Lucchesi was gone after nine minutes through injury; second his replacement, Epalahame Faiva, was given a red card for a high shot on Ireland’s hooker Dan Sheehan.

It was one of those standup shuddering tackles that once drew no comment in rugby, but that now often dictate the course of a game. The extra punishment for being unable to have contested scrums because of a sending off, as per the law book, is to go down to 13 men.

“It was something we had no control over on the rules,” said the Italy coach, Kieran Crowley. “They ought to look at that.”

Italy could have avoided this outcome if, in advance, they had nominated one of their replacement props as a viable hooker. Evidently this didn’t happen. You’d imagine it will next time out.

It took a while for the referee, Nika Amashukeli, to get his point across to a disbelieving Italy captain, Michele Lamaro. The right wing, Pierre Bruno, and the No 8 Toa Halafihi were the men affected. Game over before it had warmed up.

As turkey shoots go, however, this one saw half the group escape without a hint of buckshot. Whatever the boys in green had loaded up it wasn’t doing any damage. The degree to which Ireland seemed utterly fazed by their fortuitous circumstances was best illustrated by the first scrum after Italy had gone down to 13.

Denied the option of putting reduced numbers in the scrum, Italy had just four backs, in addition to the scrum-half, Stephen Varney, covering a vast tract of land. And still Ireland managed not to score.

“Because of our lack of accuracy and their tenaciousness in defence I thought there were a few errors we could have tidied up,” said the Ireland coach, Andy Farrell. “When we go to the point of [playing against] 13 men – look it’s just weird. We understand why the rule was brought in but at the same time in situations like that it’ll bring the rule back to everyone’s attention and they’ll look at in.

“From my point of view, rightly, Italy was trying to slow the game down and with uncontested scrums everyone’s legs are nice and fresh and that’s why Italy were tenacious in defence throughout, even when they went to 12 men.

“It’s just weird – the space you think is there but they throw caution to the wind with kamikaze style defence they flying up hitting man and ball and putting our skills under pressure.”

When the replacement Braam Steyn was sent to the sin-bin, with the game was in the final straight. There were only a dozen men in blue left to see the game out. Again, their opponents looked more rattled by it all. Never before have Ireland run in nine tries, in any circumstance, but left the scene in such haste.

Moreover they have an injury problem with Robbie Henshaw who came off worst from a collision and had to undergo head injury assessment protocols. The try with most merit was the first, from Joey Carbery, partly because it was high quality and partly because with less than four minutes on the clock it was still 15 versus 15. Everything thereafter was from another planet.