The last time one side was down to 13 players when Ireland played Italy, Peter O'Mahony had to play on the wing for 50 minutes.
That was in the 2013 Six Nations, when Brian O'Driscoll was red carded - and Ireland's only defeat to the Azzurri in the history of the championship to date ended Declan Kidney's reign.
Yesterday's meeting of the sides brought further chaotic scenes, with Italy reduced to 13 men in the 19th minute because of a little-known World Rugby law.
In fact, with five minutes remaining, the sorry visitors were reduced to 12 on the pitch following Braam Steyn's yellow card.
Ireland duly ran in two late tries to bring their total to nine - but the tally should have easily ran into double figures.
Andy Farrell's charges lacked discipline at times, conceding penalties at the breakdown and on several occasions for offside, and were careless in ways they haven't been in over a year.
“We want to be ruthless but weren’t, certainly, in the last 20 minutes of the first half and parts of the second half," admitted O'Mahony.
"We weren’t accurate and should've made life more difficult for a team down to 13 and 12 players at one stage.
“So you want to be ruthless, but at times our inaccuracy let us down."
Certainly the latest big win over the championship's whipping boys puts Ireland in a good position in terms of points difference - and gets them back to winning ways after going close in Paris.
But the negative aspects of the display will surely focus minds ahead of Saturday week's showdown with England in Twickenham.
“We know that they’re going to come hard at us," said Farrell.
"Italy came hard off the line at times and we weren’t composed enough so need to be a little bit more accurate.
"England were good against Wales, they thoroughly deserved their half-time lead. Like us, there'll be plenty for them to ponder on in the next couple of weeks."
Hame Faiva's deserved dismissal for a high challenge on Dan Sheehan sparked confusion among the players as Georgian ref Nika Amashukeli in charge of his first Six Nations game, explained that Italy would be punished on the double.
The problem was that Faiva had come on for injured starting hooker Giancarlo Lucchesi.
With Faiva gone, Italy had to bring on a front row - in this case Ivan Nemer - but could only play with 13 for the remainder.
Amashukeli had to order the Italians to take off another player.
The rule is there to prevent teams going to uncontested scrums if their scrum is is in trouble. Toa Halafihi was the unfortunate second man to go off.
“It was something we had no control over on the rules,” Italy head coach Kieran Crowley said afterwards. “They ought to look at that.”
The incident killed the game as a contest but Ireland will ask themselves why they made heavy weather of facing 13 men - and didn't rack up a more punishing score.
O'Mahony, who skippered Ireland because Johnny Sexton started on the bench, admitted it took time to adjust.
"It probably did, and it shouldn't," said the flanker.
"There was a lot of waiting around with regard to what the ruling was, and just the whole stop-start of the whole 20 minutes that surrounded it.
"What we need to be better on is negotiating our way around what the opposition are presenting us with."
On the plus side, Mike Lowry scored two tries on his Ireland debut and unselfishly set up James Lowe for his second instead of going over for a hat-trick.
Lowe was outstanding on his return from injury, while Josh van der Flier's carrying rocked Italy back and Sheehan and Ryan Baird did well on their first starts.
“It took us a while to calm down," acknowledged Farrell. "We thought there was space everywhere and were making poor decisions on the back of that.
“Because of our lack of accuracy and their tenaciousness in defence, I thought there were a few errors we could have tidied up.
“When we go to the point of (playing against) 13 men – look, it’s just weird. We understand why the rule was brought in, but at the same time, in situations like that, it’ll bring the rule back to everyone’s attention and they’ll look at it.
“From my point of view, rightly, Italy were trying to slow the game down and with uncontested scrums, everyone’s legs are nice and fresh and that’s why Italy were tenacious in defence throughout, even when they went to 12 men.
"It’s just weird – the space you think is there, but they throw caution to the wind with kamikaze-style defence, they are flying up, hitting man and ball and putting our skills under pressure.”
"But we said to the players that 57-6, we’d have certainly taken that before the game.
"It puts in a good position as far as points difference is concerned, now onto the next two matches that we need to win to be in contention for winning the competition.”
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
