Ireland and Ulster centre Darren Cave has defended teammate Jared Payne from the criticism aimed at him after Ireland's victory over Romania.

Television analyst and former Ulster head coach Matt Williams was highly critical of Payne's performance in Ireland's 44-10 win but Cave, who started in midfield alongside his fellow Ulster representative, thinks that such criticism is unwarranted.

"I haven't seen fully what was said about him but I've seen a few things. And it's just opinion at the end of the day, it's not really based on fact. I heard about him apparently kicking the ball away too much but I think he kicked the ball twice and both times it was penalty advantage, and both times we went back for the penalty. So we will deal with facts not opinions," the 28-year-old told reporters.

"And I really enjoyed playing alongside him when I was named at 12 and he was named at 13 beside me, I knew I'd feel very comfortable in there. He is an incredible communicator, and a lot of his qualities, you can almost see the way he's been brought up, everything he does is so simple.

"I think he sees space really well, he makes really good, strong decisions on the ball and he's a good communicator so he's really good to defend with. And at the end of the day you want to play with guys who make your job easier, and the amount of information he gives you, I think he's done very well for Ireland over the past while."

Ireland face Italy at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday.