With a number of backline injuries, rusty half-backs and a third different No. 8 in as many games, Schmidt took a gamble by further resting three key forwards in skipper Rory Best, Cian Healy, and James Ryan.

That clearly did not help the fluency of the Irish performance but though they were far from at their best, the fact they left Italy with a 26-16 bonus-point victory away from home and against a side who are not far from doing serious damage themselves seems to have been lost in the fog of social media war.

With two games still to play, five points have kept alive Ireland’s slim hopes of retaining the Guinness Six Nations title they won with such a swagger 12 months ago but head coach Schmidt suggested on Sunday night that his players had lost some of the confidence that coursed through the veins in 2018 as a result of the unexpected pummeling they received from England in Dublin three weeks ago.

That was the day a slow-starting Ireland, reintegrating key players with little game-time due to injuries, were caught napping by a team bristling with thunderous intent. By the time they had woken up they could do little to stem the tide and the knock-on effects of that first home championship defeat of the Schmidt era are still rippling through the camp, the head coach said.

Urging his players not to panic but instead press the reset button, Schmidt said: “I think sometimes when players haven’t played for a long time and they don’t quite get it perfect when they come back in they can get a little bit frustrated. They then try too hard and when they try too hard it doesn’t go well for them and then they start to lose a bit of confidence.

“Sometimes it’s just about taking a step back. We always talk about going forward. Sometimes you’ve got to take a step back and take a deep breath and not panic because I think the players were a bit, I suppose, broken by the fallout from the England game and then suddenly they start to question themselves.

“I think the coaching staff, it’s our job to re-energise the group and reignite the confidence. As soon as you lose that confidence, there’s a couple of times where I felt we could have taken a risk (against Italy) but we didn’t take the risk because we’re feeling a little suffocated. You can’t play within yourself, not if you want to beat a good team.”

While in some quarters Italy have been repeatedly dismissed as cannon fodder following 20 consecutive championship losses, their performances in 2019 have hinted at a breakthrough in Conor O’Shea’s third season as the boss.

Wales left the Stadio Olimpico without a try bonus point after sending a much-changed team that underestimated Italian strengths and the Azzurri let 10 points slip from their grasp due to missed kicks in the swirling Roman winds on Sunday while they also proved just as error-prone as the visitors.

No wonder Schmidt said he was worried, he always is, but he repeated his mantra of the fine margins in Test rugby being at play once again.

The difference between this year and last is that Ireland were on the right side of them.

“I’m worried. I was worried this time last year. I worry about performances when we win… this time last year we won 37-27 against Wales, we’re 30-27 up in the last play of the game and we get an intercept try to get a differential. I think you can sugarcoat things sometimes because of where you end up, not because of what you did in the process.

“We beat France with a late drop goal, in injury time. I felt we were superb in the first half against England (at Twickenham last March 17), but that’s probably the benchmark and that’s what we’ve got to keep working our back towards.

“But as you saw with England (losing to Wales on Saturday), it doesn’t take too many changes…

“I think England aren’t quite the same team if they’re missing a few players, as much as they’ve got a strength in depth. So it is fickle.

“We feel that we can put a really good performance together and it’s got to be in two weeks’ time and then we’ve got a six-day turnaround to Wales. We start the World Cup with Scotland and then a six-day turnaround to Japan so I think, for us, that’s a perfect opportunity to get as close as we possibly can in a competition to where we’ll need to be, come the Rugby World Cup.”