"If there was no pressure and it wouldn't be difficult, sure everybody would be doing it?" So said the Ireland manager, Brian O'Brien, to the players beforehand in his own inimitably quirky style. And therein lay the rub to some extent, for unlike Murrayfield this time Ireland were very definitely under pressure.

Nothing concentrates the mind quite like the fear of impending failure it would seem, and the players were not only mindful of the pressure Ireland coach Warren Gatland (especially) and assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan were under. "We had our backs against the wall too," one of them pointed out.

Clearly Saturday's mindset is still more conducive to focused Ireland displays than when they are set up as favourites. Mind you, there still seemed to be too much fear in the air - and they failed to kill off the woeful Welsh until the last 10 minutes. Given all that, that they actually stayed calm and ultimately and deservedly pulled through by a record 30 points ensured an altogether fairer reflection of the game. The margin could easily have been 50 or 60.

With a more favourable run of the ball Ireland would assuredly have broken free sooner, but twice the video referee ruled out "tries", by Shane Horgan and Mick Galwey. And referee Jonathan Kaplan erroneously ruled that David Humphreys' drop goal had travelled over the top of the left upright.

As a woeful Wales spoiled in desperation, retreating in the line of Stringer's passes persistently and "fringing" at ruck time, the penalties kept flowing but Kaplan might well have resorted to a yellow card, especially when David Young committed a blatant professional foul from an offside position to prevent Stringer clearing the ball away.

Given the frustrations of not seeing their supremacy translated more accurately on the scoreboard, and the heavy baggage Ireland took into this game, it said something about this team's character that they stayed calm. "Patience" was the key word of the week.

What particularly impressed Keith Wood in the reaction to those scores all being ruled out was that there were no expletives, no apparent signs of frustration; rather just a let's-get-on-with-it collective shrug of the shoulders.

Clearly the clarion return to arms of Mick Galwey was a major factor in the team's improved focus and sang froid. Aside from the sheer physical strength of the man in close quarters, quite what he brings to the team remains almost indecipherable or spiritual. After missing Murrayfield you could say he picks 'em. But there was, undeniably, a subtext to this uplifting win: "the boss is back."

In contrast to the almost obsessive throwing to Simon Easterby at the tail in Edinburgh, it was noticeable that Wood's first two throws went to the front of the line. The first line-out was also mauled forward - a neglected tactic at Murrayfield - while both it and the second led to towering up-and-unders by Humphreys.

From the first came his opening penalty and from this back-to-basics platform, Ireland went on to dominate the half. Calling the shots all the while was Humphreys. For all the understandable calls that the unstoppable David Wallace should have been named man of the match, I had no problem with Humphreys getting the accolade.

On top of his game and on top of this game, there was a palpable new maturity to the 30-year-old's assured performance. Whether with the early aerial stuff or the diagonal kicks, or his wristy distribution, he pulled Wales ragged and, as O'Sullivan observed later: "He kept Wales at sixes and sevens." There was also the minor matter of his perfect seven from seven.

After the porousness of Murrayfield, Humphreys and the huge-tackling Kevin Maggs helped Ireland revert to the in-yer-face, "four-up" defence to which they are well used.

The primary difference, though, was that Ireland were able to play on the front foot. The outstanding Wallace set the tone as much as anyone with his searing burst from deep after seven minutes, the mighty Peter Clohessy and Anthony Foley following suit.

The game's best ball-carrier, Wallace also memorably hauled down Shane Williams from behind to stifle a briefly-excited Welsh following - shades of Victor Costello collaring Jeremy Guscott in Twickenham three years ago.

Maggs, too, set up some trademark targets. Girvan Dempsey's solidity and positional play (compare and contrast with Kevin Morgan) was almost as significant as Humphreys' tactical kicking when accounting for match stats which gave Ireland 68 per cent of the territory with 52 per cent of the possession.

Denis Hickie had a big, big game. Running well throughout, saving a try with his speedy covering to deny Kevin Morgan in the first half, he deservedly scored the game's opening try. Despite his utterances to the contrary he'll have taken some personal satisfaction in utterly eclipsing a uninterested-looking Daffyd James (who possibly didn't touch the ball once) in front of Wales coach Graham Henry.

All in all a brave selection by the Ireland backroom team, especially replacing one quality player with another at outhalf, and it seems a particularly tortuous one late into last Monday night, was fully vindicated. The management possibly did get a little lucky with Malcolm O'Kelly being reinstated last Tuesday.

As well as nicking Welsh throws, a crunch one coming on the Irish line at 9-3, his scrumhalf's pass with the referee playing advantage paved the way for Hickie's try.

Wales? Pitiful? Nah, they surely weren't that good. They couldn't buy a lineout, they had no ball-carrying potency in the pack, they either ran laterally behind the gain line to no effect or ran into the Humphreys-Maggs brick wall, their defence had more holes than a soup-strainer, they had no obvious game-plan, they are chronically short of strength in depth in the absence of Scott Quinnell, Mark Taylor and Neil Jenkins, their structures are a mess and they appear to lack the requisite levels of fitness.

But it still takes a good team to make even a bad team look this bad.

WALES: K Morgan (Swansea); D James (Bridgend), A Bateman (Neath), L Davies (Llanelli), S Williams (Neath); S Jones (Llanelli), R Howley (Cardiff); I Thomas (Ebbw Vale), R McBryde (Llanelli), D Young (Cardiff, capt), C Wyatt (Llanelli), A Moore (Swansea), C Charvis (Swansea), G Lewis (Swansea), B Sinkinson (Neath). Replacements: B Williams (Neath) for McBryde, G Thomas (Bath) for Charvis (both 52 mins); C Anthony (Newport) for Young (65 mins); R Williams (Cardiff) for Morgan (77 mins); C Quinnell (Cardiff) for Moore (80 mins).

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Terenure College and Leinster); S Horgan (Lansdowne and Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College and Leinster), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's College and Leinster); D Humphreys (Dungannon and Ulster), P Stringer (Shannon and Munster); P Clohessy (Young Munster and Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon and Munster), M Galwey (Shannon and Munster), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College and Leinster), E Miller (Terenure College and Leinster), A Foley (Shannon and Munster), D Wallace (Garryowen and Munster). Replacements: T Brennan (Barnhall and Leinster) for Galwey (58 mins); E Byrne (St Mary's College and Leinster) for Clohessy (63 mins); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution and Munster) for Humphreys, F Sheahan (Cork Constitution) for Wood (both 78 mins); K Dawson (London Irish) for Wallace (80 mins).

Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa).