Ireland go on the rampage Six Nations

As bloodless coups go, this one was virtually devoid of tomato ketchup. Two basic tenets underpinned Ireland's record 54-10 win at Lansdowne Road yesterday, one of the most lop-sided championship contests (the word is used reservedly) ever seen at the old ground. A bloody good side beat a bloody terrible side.

Quite how good Ireland are and how bad Wales are will be determined more precisely at later dates. Ireland will know more when they play the championship standardbearers, England, at Twickenham next Saturday week, whereas Wales' true barometer will more likely come when they play Italy later still. That's their league now.

Graham Henry's judgment in decreeing that 10 Welsh players were worthy of inclusion in the original Lions squad alongside a mere half dozen Irish now looks even more risible than it did at the time. Since then Ireland have put together back-to-back wins at an aggregate of 90-16, utterly outshining them in all match-ups from one to 15.

As good as the talent is at his disposal, this was first and foremost a valedictory day for Eddie O'Sullivan, who needed a winning start to his reign and admitted he'd have taken 1-0 at 1.50.

"I was concerned before the game because certainly I thought Wales had a much better team coming to Dublin and I felt the conditions were going to turn the game into a lottery.

"It was a question of starting well and controlling the ball," he added. "Fortunately we did that but, I thought expectations were a bit over the top myself and I think we got a good start to the game and built on it. But had we had a bad start to the game it would have been a much higher hill to climb."

Consistency over 80 minutes, he repeated, along with consistency over the campaign, is what Ireland are striving for and they delivered handsomely on the first. Admittedly they didn't have to perform under much pressure and weren't stetched at a high tempo. Results this season such as Connacht beating Cardiff make more sense than ever.

The Eddie the Eagle era has taken flight, albeit against an era that long since seems to have gone past its sell-by date. The lineouts reflected well on Niall O'Donovan, the backs' running game on Declan Kidney and the defence on Mike Ford. A job well done all round.

The hunger with which the players went about their work, and significantly this was without the ball as well as with it, reflected well on the lift which the new regime has given them. The early Sunday kick-off may have had something to do with it, but it was actually almost too one-sided to stir the senses of Lansdowne Road until, in a reprise of the Cardiff meeting last October, Ireland ran in three tries in the last eight minutes against a Welsh side running out of puff and running out the gate. Cue the celebrations.

At one juncture, admittedly in between President McAleese being introduced to the players and the anthems, such was the lull that one Limerick accent could be heard shouting: "C'mon Munster." Old habits die hard, though the Munster punter was entitled to his bias. This will have been a day for Luke Clohessy to tell his grandchildren about, never mind the Mighty Claw, who had a smashing match and will have nothing but fond memories of a special day in his life.

Henry presided over a funereal Welsh press conference in which the great Robert Howley looked more forlornly Stan Laurel-like than ever. Inevitably, Henry sought to accentuate the excellence of Ireland's performance and gave Ireland "a good shot" at Twickenham. "It's going to be a great game of rugby. The Irish have been together for three or four years and they have built up a lot of confidence."

Likewise, Ray Gravell sportingly congratulated the Irish management at their press conference and Gerald Davies was going around patting Irish journalists on the back hailing an "excellent" Irish performance. They still know good rugby when they see it, even if they haven't seen it in red for quite some time.

On a day when foreign journalists were telling tales of planes bouncing seven times on horror landings or else being diverted elsewhere before Dublin Airport was eventually closed due to the gale force winds, yesterday was all about creating buffers. Buffers to face into the wind and buffers to face into the second round of matches a fortnight hence.

The magnitude of the task facing Ireland will only have been accentuated by the events of Murrayfield on Saturday. True, even Clive Woodward felt obliged to admit that England were flat and performed poorly. But therein lies the rub, for the English coach was being truthful more than arrogant.

However, their level of professionalism, their command of the basics, their seemingly impenetrable white line of defence and their high rate of chances converted meant they were still able to beat a super charged if limited and pedestrian Scottish side by 29-3. Their base level of performance, right now, is higher than anyone else's in the world.

The odds must be against Keith Wood being back in time for this game as well, for unless he plays next weekend for Harlequins it's hard to see how he can be thrown in cold at Twickenham of all places. O'Sullivan rated both him and Malcolm O'Kelly as "no better than 50-50 chances at this point."

At least there were no other casualties to add to the list, though a distraught Paul O'Connell suffered a cut head to dampen his try-scoring debut. Brian O'Driscoll was no more than badly winded when, worryingly, he stayed down for treatment after a trademark, weaving run in the prelude to Ronan O'Gara's coup de grace.

England will still be smarting from the latest grand slam to be denied them last October, and yesterday's result will have fuelled them even more. Hell hath few greater furies than an English team scorned in recent years, remembering how they have paid back the Welsh for the Wembley blip and latterly the Scots, who have paid for their venemous Murrayfield win two seasons by an aggregate of 62-6 in the subsequent two meetings.

Oh England will have been eyeing this one up alright, and it's as well Ireland are going there with the buffer of a handsome win. Asked about the possibility of expectation levels rising as the Irish supporters headed into the night, O'Sullivan retorted: "It's possible people will start too far down the road but we're going to Twickenham to play England, so if that doesn't sober the mind, nothing else will."

For the record: Extent of victory

Ireland's winning margin was their biggest against Wales, eclipsing the 36-6 win in Cardiff last year.

Ireland's highest score against Wales, eclipsing the 36-6 win in Cardiff last year.

David Humphreys' 22-point haul was the most points scored in this fixture, beating Neil Jenkins' 20 points in 1998 and  Humphreys' own tallies of 19 points in both 1999 and 2001.

Humphreys' six penalties equalled the Irish  championship record, established by Ollie Campell against  Scotland in  1982 and by Ronan O'Gara against Italy in 2000.

Ireland's six tries was the most in the fixture, eclipsing three tries on several occasions.

Ireland's points haul and winning margin were their second highest in championship history, behind only the 60-13 win at home to Italy in 2000.

For the record: Extent of defeat

Wales' defeat was their second heaviest in the championship, behind only the 51-0 defeat to France in Wembley in 1998.

It was the second highest score Wales have ever conceded, eclipsed only by the 60-26 defeat to England in 1996.