Better than being slapped in the face with a wet fish, as Monty Python might put it, and better, too, than another run-out at Dr Hickey Park against ghosted opposition, even if the Japanese visitors had a distinctly pallid pallor by the close of business. As a work-out for next week's altogether truer test against the South Africans, this predictably lopsided win just about served its purpose, namely a good quality training run.
Better therefore to get the first-quarter rustiness out of the system than go in cold against the Springboks. At least this way the players were able to re-acquaint themselves with Lansdowne Road and each other. Better, too, to find out last Saturday rather than next Sunday, that the quantum leap from playing wing at club level to full-back at Test level is probably asking too much of Geordan Murphy just now.
This leaves merely the vexed issue of who to play at inside centre. Shane Horgan was used a lot on Saturday, though not always with flat ball close to the gain line at full tilt, and therefore at maximum capacity. He was undoubtedly the most penetrating runner nonetheless, even if he again showed a tendency to take too much out of the ball and will rue his failure to offload sooner to Tyrone Howe having done everything to set up a try just past the half-hour.
Undoubtedly, Rob Henderson's equally potent last quarter was less valid given the Japanese had long since wilted. While Horgan would benefit more from an investment in him, Henderson remains the more experienced and complete player just now. He is still a far better player than he is generally given credit for, the problem being that the more he makes a success of his impact, replacement role, the more he is pigeon-holed as such. Remember his full 80 in Paris last spring?
Everyone will have benefited to some degree from the run-out, none more so than Kieron Dawson. Playing his first game in three weeks, his was a masterclass in continuity play. Malcolm O'Kelly's extraordinarily high standard of all-round play this season is almost freakish, not just in his peerless restart catches, but in his work-rate. "Phenomenal," said Ireland coach Warren Gatland. We could start taking these performances for granted, though of course we shouldn't.
Plenty dipped their bread in the gravy, most notably the electric Denis Hickie who ran in his first hattrick. Tyrone Howe scored his first tries for Ireland, and Peter Stringer had his first while having scarily been caught from behind by the Japanese number eight Takeomi Ito. Brian O'Driscoll weighed in with a couple of trademark scores in the second half.
To be picky, after just one week together in five months, Ireland were a mite too hurried and error-prone initially, and conscious of the expectation for a big score in a bit of a no-win scenario, took the ball too far in contact rather than ensure quicker ruck ball. Having failed to "rag doll" their visitors in the first quarter, Warren Gatland admitted they abandoned plans to use all the replacements' bench.
For sure, it was scarcely any kind of barometer for what will happen next Sunday, when the contrast in the opposition's sheer power will be akin to chalk and vintage cheddar. Although the Japanese were able to secure their own set-piece ball better than on previous meetings with Ireland - even if Takeomi Ito was having to do with a loaves and fishes job with lightning-quick pick-ups before being ensnared behind the gain line - the brittle tackling which had been exposed by the Irish under-25s four days earlier ultimately resurfaced.
Hence tries were scored with a facile ease the like of which Ireland will not indulge themselves in again for the rest of the season, never mind against the Springboks. Even so, after that opening 20, Ireland couldn't have done much more than they did. At least they are putting away weak international sides such as the USA Eagles and Japan with an alacrity beyond them even two seasons ago - think of Georgia, Romania and Italy, not to mention the US and Romania in the World Cup a year ago. And not conceding a try fulfilled an important pre-match target.
The 11 tries emulated the tally in two World Cup meetings against the same opposition nine and five years ago, although significantly whereas eight of those had been scored through forwards, this time all but one were touched down by backs - an accurate barometer therefore of the changed approach in the last eight internationals since that harrowing day in Twickenham last February.
In those eight games, Ireland have now scored 46 tries, 35 of them by backs. The attendant press box and TV crews assuredly had all the available records to hand, but ultimately few were broken, the victory margin and points tally falling just short of Ireland's 83-3 win over the US last summer, as did the try tally.
Even the margin came in third, just behind the 70-0 win over Georgia in the World Cup qualifiers a year ago, though Ronan O'Gara's 10 conversions equalled the landmark set by Eric Elwood that day. The young outhalf also passed 100 points-mark in his eighth Test. To land 11 kicks out of 12 augmented an assured all-round display by O'Gara, and served to exorcise a few demons there as well.
IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); D Hickie (St Mary's), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock), S Horgan (Lansdowne), T Howe (Dungannon); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Shannon); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), P Johns (Dungannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's), A Ward (Ballynahinch), A Foley (Shannon), K Dawson (London Irish). Replacements: G Longwell (Ballymena) for Johns (56 mins), D Humphreys (Dungannon) for Murphy (64 mins), R Henderson (Wasps) for Horgan (60 mins).
JAPAN: D Ohata; M Oda, R Kawai, H Namba, P Tuidraki; K Hirose, K Ohara (capt); T Fumihara, N Yasuda, N Nakamura, K Todd, H Tanuma, H Sugawara, T Ito, K Kubo. Replacements: Y Watanabe for Kubo (39 mins), M Ito for Ohara (53 mins), S Fuchigami for Hirose (53 mins).
Referee: N Whitehouse (Wales).
