o sullivan quick to hail italians ireland coach eddie o sullivan heaped praise on italy after seeing his side stutter to a 28-17 victory in rome.   it was a hell of a tough game   said o sullivan.  we struggled in the first half because we hadn t the football.  italy played really well. they handled the ball well in terms of kicking it  if that s not an oxymoron.  we said before the game that it might take until 10 minutes from the end for this game to be won  and that s how it turned out.  ireland struggled to cope with italy s fierce start and were indebted to skipper brian o driscoll  who set up tries for geordan murphy and peter stringer.  we had our first attack in the italian half after 22 minutes   said o sullivan.  we had a good return  with three first-half possessions in their half and we scored twice.  the second half was about spending more time in their half.  scrum-half peter stringer was also glad that ireland escaped wtih a victory.  all credit to them   he told bbc sport.  we knew it would be tough coming to rome. they always give us a tough game here and they showed a lot of spirit.  they had a lot of ball in the first half but we got a few scores when we got into their 22.