O'Connell hails 'patient' display (From Daily Echo)

O'Connell hails 'patient' display

7:05am Sunday 26th February 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Paul O'Connell believes Ireland's chances of triumphing in Paris next weekend have improved following their 42-10 RBS 6 Nations victory over Italy.

The Irish return to the Stade de France next Sunday after the original fixture was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

"It's great to get that result going to Paris, so we're probably in a better place than we were the last time we went over," said O'Connell.

"It's a good scoreline, there's no doubt about it. The guys are happy with that.

"There's feeling of frustration over the first-half performance and a few of the things we didn't execute.

"But when we did get out of our half we were good and confident.

"We took our chances well and kept going at them for 80 minutes, which we haven't always done.

"We have a lot of excellent and classy players and we took our tries well, which was satisfying. It was a good, patient performance."

Tommy Bowe crossed twice while Keith Earls, Tom Court and Andrew Trimble also touched down in perfect conditions as Ireland avoided a fourth successive defeat at Aviva Stadium.