A sort of equilibrium was re-established. Ireland should beat Scotland; Ireland does beat Scotland. No fanfare and, Brian O'Driscoll aside, no frills.

Saturday was a sigh of relief. Players, management, the whole fraternity exhaled and drank their beer without the trauma and crisis of confidence that beset debates in Twickenham two weeks ago.

"Our performance and defence were the most pleasing aspects of the match," said full back Girvan Dempsey. "We got our defence patterns right. We stopped them on the gain line and our first-up tackles were a lot better. As Eddie O'Sullivan said in the changing room after the match, "we've raised the bar again, it's back up there and we can't let it drop".

Peter Clohessy, so pivotal in lineouts and scrums, faced Scotland for the seventh time in his career. The grizzled prop ambled out of the changing room and parsed the match as if it were another day in the office.

"It was tough, yeah," he said. "We didn't kinda put it away until half way into the second half. Up until that it was 50/50. Our lineouts didn't work as well as they should've and we could have put a little bit more pressure on in the scrum, but we made up for that in other parts of the game.

"Obviously the lineouts were a worry. That's something we need to work on. Our scrum is perfect, we just thought we could have put them under pressure on their ball."

O'Sullivan, typically, faced the questions like a paratrooper caught behind enemy lines. But the lineout issue was inescapable.

"To be honest they (team) were not that happy with them over all. We lost some of our own ball. We got a bit edgy. The wind didn't help, but we still would not be happy with that lineout performance.

"There is a certain amount of relief in winning, I have to say. Having underperformed in Twickenham, we felt the need to perform well again. There is a certain amount of satisfaction in that.

"We got a couple of breaks at crucial times and we were pretty clinical when we got them. We didn't waste too many. I thought Scotland, with a few minutes to go, were coming at us. We could have had a nervy injury time.

"But they were unlucky. A couple of breaks went against them and we were lucky that a couple of breaks went with us."

There were contrasting fortunes for the players. Frankie Sheahan, hauled off before half-time, and O'Driscoll, with the second hat-trick of his international career, respectively struggled and soared.

"I think Brian O'Driscoll's best moment of the game was the pass he gave to Shane Horgan," said O'Sullivan. "It wasn't the tries he scored. It seemed like a 25-metre pass off his left hand and out of contact. Nobody does that really. And his last try was shear class."

The great survivor, Mick Galwey, was aware that important fences had been mended. "I'd say the players are probably more relieved than the management. If we'd lost this one heads would have definitely rolled, so I'm just delighted the management gave us a second chance."