If you gave Ireland a four-try, one-point bonus victory over Italy at the Aviva on Saturday right now, I suspect the home management might just take it and move on to the all-important final round of Six Nations matches next week.

After all, that would be a case of the bare-minimum accomplished and see them harden slightly as second favourites to take the title behind odds-on chances England.

They probably wouldn’t be too happy, as edging home by a point would have meant some nervous moments and a badly under-par performance against the tournament’s whipping boys, but this is Ireland’s first blow-out since losing 24-12 at Twickenham in February and they are blooding four uncapped players in the squad, so we probably should not be expecting cohesive fireworks from the home team.

So the dilemma and pitfalls, for potential backers of 1/66 chances Ireland on the general 28-point handicap line are clear.