So much for the theory that this was going to be a rare, evenly matched humdinger. In practice, while not the foregone conclusion of the weekend's previous two RBS Six Nations contests, it turned out to be every bit as commanding.

Not that a reinvigorated Ireland or the majority of a frozen Lansdowne Road crowd were complaining. Ireland's fifth successive win over Wales was in doubt for, em, all of a minute; give or take a second or two.

The first of Shane Byrne's brace of tries, as he rumbled over from the first of innumerable Irish lineout drives, was timed at 59 seconds. With that, the lines were drawn in the sand, and by the time Wales dared to step over them in the final quarter they were already six tries down and 36-3 adrift.

There would be a more likely brace of tries for another Blackrock boy, Brian O'Driscoll, who took his international tally to 23 from 47 caps in a typically talismanic, all-action performance which was remarkable given he'd been recuperating from a torn hamstring for the previous five weeks.

So, to paraphrase Bill McLaren, they'd have been singing (Rock Boys Are We to be precise) in Gleeson's and other bars in the environs of Williamstown yesterday. But although Byrne scooped the man-of-the-match award, it could just as easily have gone to one of the pub proprietor's extended clan, for in an industrious Irish back row Keith Gleeson was simply immense in shoring up the first line of defence with trademark tackles and turnovers while also showing he can be a dab hand with the ball in his hand.

Nobody was handier than Gordon D'Arcy, mind, who looks like effectively being Ireland's newcomer of the championship. Akin to O'Driscoll with his dancing feet, he was forever probing, and the Irish coach made the point that the game was just starting to open up for him when a bruised back forced his withdrawal.

He was also O'Driscoll-like in the manner he made tackles and quickly got to his feet, twice forcing Welsh penalties when the ball carrier failed to release. Indeed, one suspected that when Wales coach Steve Hansen was lauding O'Driscoll's performance he was perhaps not the first person to get the identity of the two Irish centres confused.

Ireland poached more than enough ball to win this game. In a fairly complete tactical coup for Eddie O'Sullivan, Wales were ruthlessly targeted at the breakdown, where in the absence of Colin Charvis poor Martyn Williams (Wales's only nose-in-the-dirt poacher) was heavily outnumbered.

Given the Welsh pack were repeatedly muscled back by Ireland's maul, this left them with very few crumbs. Even in the scrums, where the selection of Iestyn Thomas was seen as an attempt to target John Hayes, Wales had no joy.

Indeed, Hansen's slightly bizarre propensity for hauling off Adam Jones scarcely a half-hour into the fray (this was the fourth game running he'd done this) merely signalled Ireland's supremacy here as well. Reggie Corrigan licked his lips and tore into Gethin Jenkins, as the Welsh tight side frequently spun backwards. The Irish pack's supremacy was complete.

The theory had always been that Ireland's pack would do a number on their counterparts, thereby negating the "Williams Twisters" and Wales's greater cutting edge out wide. And so it came to pass, literally from the kick-off. With the wind behind him, Ronan O'Gara aggressively kicked deep and long toward Rhys Williams by the corner flag, and rather than keep the ball in hand, under pressure from Ireland's chasers, Stephen Jones conceded the throw on his own 22.

Simon Easterby, who had another big game, took Byrne's throw cleanly. With immaculate body positioning the Irish pack drove straight for the line, and, as he does with Leinster, Byrne broke infield off the back of it and probably couldn't believe the fringe defence had gone AWOL. O'Gara converted.

With the wind behind them, Ireland could have played territory a bit more, but with the penalties coming their way they controlled the throw-in and the first half was largely about whether they could get their lineout maul within strike range.

After another drive was held up, O'Gara worked a cutback with O'Driscoll, who danced inside Justin Thomas, took Adam Jones's tackle and bounced off the decidedly non-tackling Gareth Cooper to score. God was back.

The Welsh forwards were resorting to all manner of means to stop the Irish lineout drive. It was a surprise therefore when Ireland went for a difficult penalty at goal, which O'Gara missed, and then worked a blindside move rather than another drive after opting to kick to the corner with the Welsh on a yellow-card warning from Joel Jutge.

They'd actually gone through five phases and made a rare turnover in contact off Paul O'Connell's third carry in the move when O'Gara charged down Iestyn Harris's laboured clearance kick to make the touchdown before touch-in-goal. Chargedown tries have been a theme of the weekend.

A fourth try arrived before the break, originating from Ireland's defensive organisation and specifically a big hit by Gleeson on Robin McBryde. O'Gara's diagonal kick from the scrum was well chased by Tyrone Howe. Cue another attacking lineout, another Easterby take and another Byrne try, this time peeling off on the blind side to make it 24-3 at the break.

Gleeson and the Irish defence took up where it left off, the Irish openside stopping a Shane Williams counterattack at source with a crunching hit. O'Driscoll cut through Wales's soft centre only for Gareth Thomas to read the off-load inside to Shane Horgan.

The Irish captain and the ever-willing O'Connell took it up again before Anthony Foley adroitly held Peter Stringer's inside pass for a deserving try. The game was definitively up for Wales as The Fields of Athenry echoed around the old ground.

For variation, quick off-the-top ball by O'Connell helped expose further powder-puff defence. Gleeson, stationed in midfield, showed the ball and straightened through an inviting gap between Williams and Stephen Jones, timing his pass perfectly for the supporting O'Driscoll to veer outside Gareth Thomas and take Sonny Parker's tackle to score.

Wales rallied, applying some width to their game in stretching Ireland's defence. Stephen Jones and Harris spread the ball for Williams to step inside Kevin Maggs and put Tom Shanklin over with a deft, one-handed, around-the-corner pass.

Shanklin, providing some much-needed straight running to Wales's lateral play, scored a second when stepping inside Maggs and slipping out of O'Gara's tackle. By then, admittedly, Ireland had been reduced to 14 men with the erroneous sin-binning of an aghast Girvan Dempsey at the behest of touch judge Andy Turner.

If anyone it should have been Tyrone Howe, given he had spoiled Cooper's intended feed off a ruck, though given the ball was out it was, as O'Sullivan observed, "a pretty harsh yellow card" either way.

Nonetheless, Wales did create quite a few overlaps in that endgame, and on a day when Ireland had feasted themselves handsomely, it did provide some food for thought.