Joe Schmidt’s men eventually prevailed in Rome through second-half tries from Conor Murray and Tommy O’Donnell when Italy hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini was in the sin-bin, but while the clash may not have been the best spectacle, Kearney insisted Ireland never expected it to be easy.

He told BBC1: “It was a slog, but I don’t know if it was that frustrating. Any time you come to Rome that’s exactly what you’re expecting – a slog.

“We knew that if we just kept chipping away and trying to build some phases that eventually we would break them down.”

Ireland suffered a blow minutes before kick-off when flanker Sean O’Brien was forced to pull out of the starting line-up, nursing his hamstring.

The injury-plagued 27-year-old was poised to make his first Test appearance since November 2013 and Kearney said it was a “massive disappointment” for his Leinster team-mate to miss out.

Kearney said: “It was a bit of a shock for us just before kick-off but we prepped really well and the substitutes train hard during the week and they come in.

“It didn’t move us off our groove too much but it’s a massive disappointment for him, he’s worked so hard to get back here.”