Even on upbeat days like these the Irish team management and captain tend to arrive in more like a military junta than in clap-happy mode. These boys. They certainly don't wear their hearts on their sleeves. A job satisfactorily done. Another to do in a fortnight.

O'Sullivan, the generalissimo of the four-man panel which included Brian O'Driscoll, Declan Kidney and manager Brian O'Brien, was not about to foxtrot around the media room or sing his way up the aisle. O'Sullivan, the eternal pragmatist, was "very pleased overall".

But it wasn't a bad return of scores against a supposedly reborn Welsh team, a team O'Sullivan's men just narrowly beat last year. The coach, not just pleased with the outcome, however, was basking a little in returning with what he had predicted over the last few days.

"We've been saying all week that the key was down to our forwards getting an attacking platform, and in that respect the pack dominated," he said. "We put down a marker from the start. Our possession was good and our defence was very tight too. To that end the game plan worked very well.

"Then, in the first 20 minutes of the second half, it was very important not to let anything happen there.

"The game was going to be pretty old-fashioned. It would start and finish up front. With the quality of possession from the pack we could go forward. It gave the backs a bit of latitude to run.

"The other aspect of it was, particularly for the first hour, that our defence was very tight. Wales were going to look for a lot of off-loads in the tackle, The key was to make the double tackle and stop the off-load and shut them down at that source.

"The final quarter I thought was a bit loose, but at that stage I thought the game was over and Wales were always going to throw caution to the wind."

Six tries, four coming in the first half when Ireland were under pressure to rack up a big score with a strong wind on their backs, must have gone even beyond satisfying.

The midfield partnership of O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy was also seen to be as exciting as people had hoped for. On one of those points, O'Driscoll decided to be a little pedantic.

"When you read the papers in the morning it will be six tries to two," pointed out the captain."

Easy enough though?

"I wouldn't say it was easy. I just thought we built ourselves a great platform. Sure, defensively they mightn't have been as strong as they've been in previous games, but I thought we'd the right angles of running.

"We put together some good phases, and as Eddie said the forwards dominated and our rolling maul was particularly good today and lot of credit has to go to Niall O'Donovan. We mauled a hell of a lot more ball than we usually do because it was so effective.

"With Darce (D'Arcy) there was a huge amount of hooha. But basically myself and Darce were just playing in a different channel. We communicate all the time when I'm at outside centre and he's on the wing for Leinster. So moving in a channel, things didn't really change a hell of a lot."

For Welsh coach Steve Hansen and his young side, it was a jolt back to the real world. Typically to the point, the New Zealander had little time for skirting the issues that let down his team when so much more was expected from them, at least at home.

"We had problems," he said. "Our first-time tackling was poor and a lot of our back play and open play was lateral. The fundamentals of the game are also that you have to win the game up front.

"I think it is a well known fact that Ireland has a very good pack that has been around for quite some time, competing with the very best and doing a share of damage. But we'll go away from this and we'll grow and we'll come back and have another crack in a couple of weeks.

"We said from the word go that we hadn't arrived yet and we are still going to have the odd bad day, and from those bad days we'd learn things. Today was reality."

That's how O'Sullivan saw it. Ireland and Wales living in their own worlds. The next match in two weeks against world champions England another opportunity to step into a different one.

"Twickenham is going to be another battle and a big battle at that," O'Sullivan said. "I think we'll worry about that on Tuesday morning at our next camp. Against Scotland I think England got some lucky breaks that went their way. Certainly they made England work the whole 80 minutes and I think that's the key.

"If you make them work for 80 minutes, you make them earn their victory and that's the most important thing to do. They are the world champions, and on the day if they are not on their game that's when you can get them. Scotland weren't short for the battle and that was the key."