Ireland were never seriously in danger of going the way of Scotland in last year's championship opener at the same Stadio Flaminio.

They will take on France in Dublin with confidence sky high after succeeding in Rome where their predecessors had failed in Treviso and Bologna.

With players to come back into the side, they will undoubtedly fancy their chances against England at Lansdowne Road next month.

The match began badly for Italy, with Diego Dominguez failing to recover from a groin injury.

And things gradually got worse as Ireland ran them off their feet and finished in despair for the hosts - with scrum-half Alessandro Troncon sent off for punching Peter Stringer.

Troncon is now set to miss Italy's match against England at Twickenham on Saturday week, while coach Brad Johnstone will be desperate for the return of Dominguez.

The Azzurri had this game earmarked as one of two hoped-for wins. But, without the influential Dominguez, they were arguably beaten before they took the field.

Fellow Argentinian Ramiro Pez, the 22-year-old protege of Dominguez, stepped back into the fly-half role. But it was a daunting task which ultimately proved beyond him.

Pez failed to create play for his backs and could manage just two goals from his five attempts after taking over the goalkicking from the injured Corrado Pilat.

Pez's misery contrasted sharply with the joy of his opposite number Ronan O'Gara, who racked up a record 30 points against Italy at Lansdowne Road last year and once more underlined his growing stature in the game.

The Munster fly-half produced some slick handling to get Ireland's quicksilver threequarters into their stride and contributed 21 points with four penalties, two conversions and his first try for Ireland.

O'Gara had points on the board within three minutes after winger Pilat safely defused his 'bomb' but held on to the ball in the tackle.

Italy's biggest threat came from their lively pack but they scored the opening try when they brought their backs into play for the first time.

Full-back Christian Stoica made the initial break, racing on to Pez's well-timed pass and took a return pass from Luca Martin before Denis Dallan came in from the left wing to send Pilat over.

The right-winger was having a fine game. But it ended prematurely when he was hurt scoring the try, and Johnstone sent on Ezio Galon in his place - with Pez taking over the goal-kicking.

Unfortunately for the Italians, Pez's marksmanship was not in the same league as Dominguez's - and he missed the difficult conversion and also hooked a penalty attempt.

The accurate O'Gara provided an example of how it should be done as he kicked a fourth penalty and converted Henderson's first try from the touchline.

Henderson, a crash-ball specialist, found himself in the clear after racing on to O'Gara's perfectly-timed pass and had the angle to beat Stoica to the corner.

Italy were down to 14 men at the time, with prop Andrea Muraro sin-binned on 38 minutes on the intervention of Scottish touchjudge Rob Dickson who had spotted him kicking an opponent.

Ireland made their extra man tell at the start of the second half when Henderson steamed on to another of O'Gara's delightful passes to breach the first line of defence and brushed aside the weak challenge of Dallan to touch down for his second try.

Italy had earlier profited from modern technology to get back in the game with the first Six Nations try to be awarded with the aid of slow-motion replays.

They were trailing 19-8 when lock Carlo Checchinato forced his way over the line. But, with referee Jonathan Kaplan unsighted, it needed video referee Ed Morrison to make the crucial call.

Pez's first successful kick cut the deficit to just four points at half-time, but Henderson put the game beyond them when he completed his hat-trick on 57 minutes.

Left-winger Tyrone Howe looked a definite scorer when he beat two men on a thrilling touchline dash only to be impeded by Stoica as he chased his own chip ahead.

As referee Kaplan contemplated a penalty try, Henderson made sure of the score when he was first to the ball and touched it down.

As Italy tired, Ireland turned their obvious superiority into more points - with right-winger Shane Horgan taking advantage of a cut-out pass from O'Gara to grab his sixth international try and O'Gara touching down for his first after more impressive build-up.

Ireland had Peter Clohessy sin-binned 10 minutes from the end, and Italy also finished with 14 men when Troncon paid for a moment of madness as he swung a right hook on the unfortunate Stringer who had to be helped off the field.

At least Italy had the final say when flanker Mauro Bergamasco grabbed an injury-time consolation try, to which Pez added the goal - but it could not deflect from an impressive performance by the Irish.