The forensic examination of Ireland's 16-9 victory over Italy on Sunday continued this afternoon and Off The Ball's Dave McIntyre caught up with Ireland full back Simon Zebo to get his thoughts on the game.

"After the first 25 minutes we just seemed to be lacking a bit of pace, lacking a bit of rhythm" he said.

The weekend's victory over the Azzurri guarantees Ireland's quarter-final berth and Zebo knows that a repeat performance in their crunch clash against France this Sunday would see the group finish just second in Pool D.

"We couldn't really hold onto the ball at certain important times in the game, it was a very weird game to be part of. We'll certainly have to clean up our mistakes ahead of the weekend.

"I reckon the side can improve considerably because we know we didn't perform well and there wasn't much of an atmosphere in the dressing room afterwards.

He acknowledged the high stakes of a competition and despite being guaranteed a spot in the next round, the side aren't taking anything for granted.

"We just weren't on the money and you simply can't afford to be in knock out rugby. I suppose we were lucky that it happened last week when we could grind out the win, because if we perform that badly again I don't know if we'll get the win."

Ireland take on France this Sunday at 4.45pm at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.