It is often said that Leicester are England in miniature. Or is it the other way round? Either way, it was a pretty good day for the club at the top of the Premiership and, since he scored 18 points, a rewarding one for Toby Flood in his quest to take his country's No10 shirt off Jonny Wilkinson.

There was a proviso to the performance by Flood, in that he spent only the first half in the position up for grabs, and in that time was a mixture of good and indifferent. He took the ball at pace into the face of the Gloucester defensive line a couple of times, but scuffed a restart.

With the departure of Dan Hipkiss, Flood moved to inside centre, which meant that the two outside halves were now Nicky Robinson, a Welshman, and Jeremy Staunton, an Irishman. It is a feature of English club rugby that nobody is really little England at all.

In the centre, Flood took his place in a leaky defence that allowed Jonny May in particular to spring into action. Gloucester, as the game opened up loosely, began to look more imaginative than Leicester, which admittedly is not always so very hard to do.

It did not matter, since up front Leicetser were giving their visitors a right old going over. At the scrum Gloucester had a gruesome afternoon, suffering against Martin Castrogiovanni, Mefyn Davies and Marcos Ayerza. Again, not an Englishman in sight.

In the line-out, however, Louis Deacon, Geoff Parling and Jordan Crane, English to their core, had a field day. In short, the Leicester pack hogged possession and the team smashed their way forward, with Geordan Murphy adding a little cameo of artistry to keep the more sensitive supporters satisfied.

The Irish full-back scored the try straight after the break that put the game to bed. Flood was involved in the passing movement across the field, as was Scott Hamilton who did not have the safest day with his hands. To release the full back must have been a relief for the New Zealander.

Lote Tuqiri, who is going back to Australia after landing himself in one the coldest winters since, as they say, records began, scored a strange try after Crane had fumbled at the base of a scrum. Sometimes the front five can blast the set-piece forwards a bit too fast for a No8's liking.

Tuqiri ran through a large gap produced by the interruption to the smooth advance. Crane, for the rest of the game, had a big part to play and was more influential than Gareth Delve who has been promoted of late for a return to the Welsh squad. It was a day in retreat for the Gloucester captain, not for ­advancing his international ­credentials.

The final try by the home team was scored by Ben Youngs who is not without international ambitions of his own. The scrum-half made several clean breaks, but none led to anything, suggesting that excitement may get the better of him at the moment to decide what to do next. Until, that is, he chose to score. Youngs is a fine, raw talent.

On the losing side, Olly Morgan looked full of sparkle at full-back. Gloucester were full of adventure but without any ball. In that respect they could not be accused of being any sort of England. But since they were the losers, it may not matter as the big team prepare to face Ireland at Twickenham.

Brought down: Ronan O'Gara is floored by an unorthodox challenge from his opposite number Craig Gower Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Coach Nick Mallett, a wonderfully shrewd and rounded man wasted in his current role, spoke of "retaining pride", a "fantastic defence" and a similar score (27-6) on a comparably daunting away trip to New Zealand last summer. He should have just said the words on everyone else's lips: "Damage limitation." That was the summit of Italy's ambition.

One could feel some sympathy for Ireland. There was disgruntlement aplenty in Dublin on Saturday night at their lack of cohesion and ruthlessness. But this was the classic no-win situation. They were not at their best, but still won easily. More was expected, but as their captain, Brian O'Driscoll, explained: "It's not easy to click after just being together for two weeks. We can't turn it on and off, you have to build all the things that are part of your game. We haven't played together as a side since November and maybe that showed.

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"In the autumn when we beat South Africa, we had been together for four weeks and that makes a big difference. But it's fair to say there is still plenty to improve on, but this is a job done. We will take the positives from it and move on."

Among those wonderfully hackneyed "positives" was a polished performance from fly-half Ronan O'Gara, kicking expertly and instigating Ireland's first try with a beautifully-flat pass to Andrew Trimble. He is not done with international rugby just yet. David Wallace gave a typically rumbustious performance, Cian Healy worked tirelessly, Tomas O'Leary sniped dangerously and O'Driscoll showed some delightful touches.

But elsewhere there was considerable rustiness, and the second half was a woeful disappointment. No tries and a pretty horrid spectacle.

"We didn't manage to get any pace on the game," head coach Declan Kidney said. "It was very frustrating." It was, that. But the game was over with Ireland 23-8 ahead at the interval.

On occasions like this you wonder why the tournament does not employ a bonus-point system. Ireland might have performed with more zip had they been chasing four tries in that second period. Line breaks were made, but support was too often lacking.

The only real surprise of the day was Ireland's scrummage. It was surprisingly good. Healy coped admirably with Martin Castrogiovanni (is an autumnal cloak gathering over the great shaggy-haired prop's career?) and Italy could not find the advantage they expected and craved. Coupled with a line-out that did not work (seven of their throws were lost), it meant there was no attacking base from which to work.

"It is very tough to be competitive if you lose nearly 50 per cent of your line-outs," lamented Mallett. What ball they did have was excruciatingly slow, and scrum-half Tito Tebaldi hardly has a snappy service anyway. One try did materialise, but it was a gift from out-of-sorts full-back Rob Kearney, inviting a charge-down from Kaine Robertson with the tardiness of his clearance. Otherwise the try line looked a distant mirage for Italy.

For Ireland, attention now turns to France in Paris on Saturday. They have minor injury concerns over O'Gara (bang to the knee), Paul O'Connell (blow to the eye) and Trimble (tight hamstring), as well as existing concerns over those missing here: Stephen Ferris, Donncha O'Callaghan and Jonathan Sexton.

The softly-spoken Kidney was coy on the immediate prospects of all these players, but it seems Ferris ("he needs to put weight on his knee first") is the least likely to pass muster for Paris. And that will certainly not be an occasion for the frail.

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