Six Nations: The sight of Marcus Horan being stretchered off the pitch after a long delay in the second half of Sunday's game was the most unsettling image of the day, but thankfully the prognosis on the Munster and Irish prop improved further yesterday.

"It's good news," revealed coach Eddie O'Sullivan at the outset of yesterday's briefing with the Irish coaching staff. "He's obviously quite stiff after the knock he got, but we'll rehab him this week and we expect to have him back in full training for the Scottish match."

John Hayes developed a virus infection and a high temperature overnight after the game and was admitted to hospital. He returned home yesterday, where he will spend the week, but it is not expected to hinder his preparation next week.

Paul O'Connell should also be able to resume training at the start of next week. "I've every confidence that he should be good to go for the Scottish match."

Given the performances of Malcolm O'Kelly and Donncha O'Callaghan, the choice to partner O'Connell looks as hard as ever. Tellingly or not, O'Kelly was one of those mentioned positively, and without prompting, by O'Sullivan yesterday, while he also responded enthusiastically to promptings about Peter Stringer.

Aside from highlighting Stringer's passing, well-timed breaks and his kicking game, "you'll also notice that rather than just sweeping the ball away at ruck time, he's beginning to run across the pillar defenders to fix them. They're all small adjustments, but they are good in terms of buying time for the outside backs."

In addition to Stringer and O'Kelly, O'Sullivan also went out of his way to praise Geordan Murphy's performance. "He was very solid at the back, made some very good decisions and kicked the ball in behind the Welsh well in the second half. You could keep picking names out, but everybody played well."

Indeed, with Ronan O'Gara outkicking Gavin Henson tactically, both with and against the wind, and Murphy finding his range with increasing confidence, Ireland's territorial dominance became more and more pronounced, which was a source of obvious satisfaction to kicking coach Mark Tainton.

"I was very pleased with the kicking of the players yesterday," the Australian said. "It was a very difficult wind to kick into, especially in the second half, and the players picked good moments to kick the ball deep in behind the Welsh which gave us good field position."

Defensive coach Graham Steadman, while not of a mind to mention the early porousness around the number 10 channel, which cannot be exclusively O'Gara's fault, was also pretty pleased with that aspect of Ireland's play, albeit with the rider that the concession of seven first-half penalties afforded Wales some "cheap field position".

"But the pleasing thing was that in the second half the guys went out and did the business. I did feel very comfortable after the first quarter, because they asked a lot of questions of our defence and during that period we looked very comfortable.

"There were one or two little opportunities which Stephen Jones created with a little show-and-go, and a bit of close support, but other than that I was very happy with the guys. We're very happy with the guys and we're certainly making progressive strides and we're improving in every match. Overall, we made the Welsh look very ordinary."

Under Steadman, especially in the last two games, Ireland have been employing more of a mix between a rush and a drift defence, with a greater emphasis on line speed. "Yeah, a bit of everything. What we're trying to buy into now is the recognition of slow ball, when and when not to be a little bit more aggressive on our line speed. It's working well, and off the back of it we can cause teams problems with the ball in hand."

Niall O'Donovan, the forwards coach, also maintained the setpieces were excellent, and singled out a "superb game" by Jerry Flannery, to which there will be few quibbles. The hooker's throw-ins were on the money, and Flannery was excellent on the ball, in driving hard or in helping to clear out, and gave one of the mauls added impetus by peeling off infield for variety - a rare enough occurrence.

The find of the season, he looks like he belongs, and can't have been far off Shane Horgan as man of the match, although the latter's strong running, work-rate and good decision-making on the ball justifiably earned him a first such award.

One thing which helped turn the trend was the improved discipline: Ireland conceded four penalties in the opening quarter, but thereafter only another six as they responded to referee Jonathan Kaplan's warnings, in particular for not rolling away. This was Kaplan's eighth time in charge of an Ireland game, and it's no harm that they've earned the respect of this excellent referee. O'Sullivan recalled that they conceded just four penalties against England last season.

Skills coach Brian McLaughlin admitted that Ireland were afflicted with slow ball close to the Welsh line, but praised the contribution of the midfielders and backrowers in helping to force turnovers and slow down Welsh ball at the breakdown.

"When we manage to get go-forward and get support to the ball carrier quickly, our presentation and quality of ball is good, but I think that's an area certainly we can work on and improve further."

Looking ahead to the Scottish game, O'Sullivan envisages a different type of match. "Their game is a very structured game. They're using a very good kicking flyhalf in Parks to turn teams, and they're defending exceptionally well. England kept the ball in hand most of the time, ran at Scotland, and Scotland defended superbly and just kept picking off their scores. It's a game that Scotland have a lot of belief in. I suppose it's not a high-risk game, but it's certainly paying dividends."