Ireland v Wales reaction:Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll admitted his 100th cap was more emotional than he thought it would be after he led his side to a 27-12 Six Nations win over Wales at Croke Park.
The Leinster centre said it was a “massive honour” and a relief to mark the milestone with a resounding victory.
O’Driscoll became the 13th player to become an international rugby centurion when he led Ireland out for the 63rd time.
“That was a different feeling, probably more emotional than I thought it would be,” he said. “It was a fantastic feeling and it’s a massive, massive honour to have played for my country 100 times.
“The reception on the way out was an extra on winning the game.”
Ireland did most of the damage during a 10-minute spell when Lee Byrne was in the sin bin for a professional foul.
Keith Earls and Tomas O’Leary crossed to punish Byrne’s indiscipline with a 10-point flurry that disjointed Wales never recovered from.
“When they went a man down we upped the tempo and went after them,” said O’Driscoll. “They struggled to live with us and for those 10 minutes we played intelligently.
“We played a smart game. We didn’t try to play too much rugby but when the time arose we took our chances and weren’t afraid to throw it around.”
Ireland retain a remote chance of winning the Six Nations title but are more likely to claim a fifth Triple Crown in seven years, with Scotland ending their championship at Croke Park next weekend.
“After the disappointment of losing in France it was our target to win our remaining three games and that’s still obtainable,” said O’Driscoll.
“It’s far from a foregone conclusion against Scotland if people are thinking like that.
“In all the times I’ve played Scotland they’ve never made it easy. I anticipate it will be as hard as any of our Six Nations games in recent years.
“We want to be challenging for the Triple Crown and still have an outside chance of the championship.
“It’s pleasing with the way we’ve come back from the disappointment of France.”
Gordon D’Arcy limped off midway through the first half but head coach Declan Kidney insisted the injury is not as bad as first feared.
“Gordon took a blow above his knee but the structure of the knee is fine. We think it’s just a heavy dead leg,” said Kidney. “He’s already had treatment and 48 hours can make a huge difference with this type of injury. We’ll know more on Monday.”
Warren Gatland did not mask his disappointment after Wales slumped to their third defeat of the campaign.
“We are very disappointed,” said the former Ireland coach. “Ireland were very good and very clinical. We had more territory and possession, but turnovers were costly for us.
“The yellow card was very costly in the game. We haven’t learned our lesson from England, and from a coaching point of view that is very frustrating.
“We did create some chances and opportunities, but we tried to force things a little too much.
“We need to keep our patience and work on accuracy.”
Wales had a series of attacking scrums early in the second-half at 16-6 adrift, but they failed to capitalise and Ireland cleared the danger, then broke upfield and killed the game off.
“If we had scored from that last scrum... but we need to concentrate 100 per cent. That was a big moment in the game,” Gatland added. “We came up against a very good Irish defensive display. They are pretty experienced in what they do.
“We have struggled a little with regard to our strength in defence - we are missing some key players at the moment - but it is something we are always working on.”
Wales wind up their Six Nations campaign at home to Italy next Saturday, and it is possible that scrumhalf Mike Phillips, skipper Ryan Jones and prop Gethin Jenkins could all be back in the mix after injuries.
As for Wales leaking three more tries - they have now conceded 10 in four games - there were no excuses from defence coach Shaun Edwards.
“I am disappointed we went down to 14 men and conceded two tries, but the Irish defence was better than ours today,” he said.
Skipper Martyn Williams added: “We had plenty of ball, but we are just not clinical enough at key points in the game. We had a crazy five minutes when they scored two tries against us.”