All in all, hats off to a very good, solid night's work. Ireland weren't getting out the loudhailers afterwards, but more than anything else their confidence took a restorative shot in the arm from this commanding win. They went and won the game early, thereafter taking their foot off the pedal to cruise into Wednesday's play-off in Lens.

Considering the spate of disruptions, ultimately resulting in a quartet of the original selection having to be changed come kick-off, not to mention their collective Aussie hangover, this effort spoke volumes for the depth of spirit in the Irish set-up.

For sure, the Romanians were limited, but then again they were well shackled and not the least pleasing aspect of the night for Warren Gatland will have been his team's defence. Having scored five tries on their last visit here in November, the Romanians weren't granted a whiff of the Irish line until their consolation score after 75 minutes.

Their repetitive, head-down charges from close-in generally met with a well-populated, well-organised and impenetrable green wall. It wasn't until a bit of pyjama rugby entered the equation in the last quarter that their classy and pacey full back Mihai Vioreanu made any inroads.

Enjoying a much superior lineout, maul and scrum, and winning quicker ruck ball, the most pleasing thing about Ireland's performance was the bright and positive way they went about laying the foundations. This wasn't a grinding win. There was a much higher-tempo, running game than was even seen against the United States, as evidenced by the statistic which revealed that an on-song Eric Elwood kicked only six of the balls that came his way.

Captain Dion O'Cuinneagan set the tone with an inspirational lead-from-the-front performance. No one covered as much yardage as the Cape Town gazelle. Athletic in the line-outs and at restarts, and showing excellent hands and support work in the loose, he gave Ireland's drives some real dynamism and pace. The only blemish was the sight of him grabbing his hamstring in the last minute and gingerly leaving the fray.

Not being wise after the event, but you wondered when Alan Quinlan was introduced as the first of three debutants off the bench why O'Cuinneagain rather than Andy Ward wasn't taken off and wrapped in cotton wool. Instead, he had his hamstring wrapped in ice.

O'Cuinneagain is one of the key men in this Irish set-up and the most worrying fall-out from the pool stages is that injuries have left the squad a little threadbare. In addition to Trevor Brennan's suspension and the injuries to David Corkery and Eric Miller, Justin Bishop and Peter Clohessy (with a recurrence of his back strain) were withdrawn yesterday, thereby taking to four the number of changes from the original selection. Elwood also departed with a wound last night after a collision with Jonathan Bell's elbow opened up a head wound that required 11 stitches.

Irish coach Warren Gatland, admittedly, had argued that some of the pre-match shuffling made Ireland stronger - certainly O'Cuinneagain's presence did.

The Irish coach could also afford to cock a snook at some of his detractors who criticised a few of his original squad selections.

For starters, there probably isn't an openside in the country who could give the kind of out-and-out number seven performance which Kieron Dawson did last night.

Dawson has his detractors, but his selection in the squad was utterly justified on this evidence, his first 80 minutes of the season. Linking well in open play or ensuring continuity at the breakdown, his tackling was first-rate and he also ensured at least three turnovers in the tackle.

Whether or not Andy Ward's close-in muscular presence is more suited to the blind-side role, there's little doubt that the Irish back row played their Romanian counterparts off the park and shackled scrum-half dangerman Petre Mitu as well.

Plenty of other Irish individuals did themselves, their coach and their team a power of good. Like, where did Elwood bring this performance out of? That he landed seven place-kicks from seven, that his restarts and tackling were on the money, is typical of the man. But equally as eye-catching was the way he took the ball flat, along with his straight running and decisive distribution. This was vintage Elwood, his best since the Boland tour opener the summer before last. Must be his new goatee.

Mike Mullins injected real pace into the line, too. Justin Fitzpatrick also had a big game, displaying the same high work-rate that he put in against Australia, while there were tries for Tom Tierney and Conor O'Shea (two), even if the latter's difficulty with a rolling ball is seemingly now known even in eastern Europe.

There were also debuts for Quinlan and, at opposite ends of the pitch and the spectrum, Lansdowne boys Angus McKeen and Gordon D'Arcy.

Playing into the wind, Elwood set the tone when running on to Tierney's long, flat pass from quick off-the-top line-out ball to dummy inside Lucien Vusec. Dawson and then James Topping (who also had a strong-running night) provided the link for the supporting O'Cuinneagain to claim his first Irish try in 15 tests. It was the pick of Ireland's five as well.

Ireland were taking quick taps, and endeavouring to move the ball wide even off set-pieces, but it was a close-in forward drive after a line-out steal by Paddy Johns, who also set up the final ruck, which culminated in Ward spotting the Romanians fanning out. Skipping over the ruck, he muscled over gleefully.

All Romania could muster was a couple of penalties by Mitu in response to one by Elwood, before Topping instigated another close-in drive. Mullins then burst past Erdinci Septar and offloaded in the tackle for O'Shea to score.

Ireland's 27-6 interval lead was extended five minutes after the resumption when O'Cuinneagain's deft pick-up set up good ruck ball, with which Elwood floated a nice skip pass for O'Shea to burst through again.

The full back launched the fifth try as well with a strong counterattack. Supported by Mullins, Fitzpatrick put the Romanians on the back foot some more before Tierney spotted the blind-side gap.

There was a foretaste of things to come with D'Arcy's cameo, and also a sensational pick-up and burst up the blind-side by Mullins, before Mitu's swift transfer from Catalin Draguceanu's scrum pickup put Cristian Sauan over in the corner.

Even then, a beaming Brian O'Driscoll had the final say as a converted out-half with a steepling drop goal which bore all the trademarks of a cheeky off-the-pitch bet. In any event, Ireland were smiling again.