Eddie O'Sullivan was adamant yesterday's unconvincing performance against abysmal opposition was acceptable for a team with aspirations of winning this year's championship. "Workmanlike" was the word.

It was the usual set up. The Irish coach and captain Brian O'Driscoll arrived at the media tent 26 minutes after their Welsh counterparts had completed their media duties. Over an hour after the game.

The 31-5 victory glosses over a Welsh challenge that imploded when yet another leader, outhalf Stephen Jones, was lost to injury after 19 minutes. His replacement, Gavin Henson, registered five official errors, two sliced kicks in particular which heaped enormous pressure on the Welsh defence.

But O'Sullivan refused to go negative. He even expressed satisfaction at Ireland's building through the phases, even though the quality out wide was again starved of quality possession.

"I'm very pleased with the performance," he started. "I thought it was a very solid, workmanlike performance throughout. I think anyone who had notions that Wales weren't going to come and play were blown away fairly early on.

"I thought Wales started the game very well. They got possession, held onto it. They ran at us very hard, made us work. Picked up a try early in the game, which put the gauntlet down to us, but we responded very well.

"I have to say over the 80 minutes I thought we deserved to win the game. Played good, solid rugby. One of the most pleasing aspects was how we defended. I thought we defended superbly. I thought our set-pieces were very solid."

Andrew Trimble was absolved of blame for Hal Luscombe's try, which O'Sullivan put down to a "lucky bounce".

Astonishingly, the departure of Jones was watered down while Henson's nightmare was completely ignored.

Was the injury to Jones not significant to the outcome?

"Ah, it's hard to say. I know Stephen is a big player for them and he's kind of a tactical quarterback. Having said that, it might have taken an edge off them a wee bit I suppose, but again Gavin Henson is an international rugby player. He came into the position and played. I don't think it would have changed the result if Stephen was on the field, to be honest. I thought we played well enough to win that game."

Any particular area of improvement required ahead of Scotland's arrival to Lansdowne Road? "Not any particular area, no. I want to make sure our set-piece stays where it is. A good platform to play off it. Okay, a few times we turned over the football when we might of held on to it. I think if you are playing the game we are trying to play, that is going to happen."

The bizarre way in which this year's Six Nations has evolved was then put to O'Driscoll.

"When you get to the third game there is often one team who have won all three, which isn't the case this time around, so it's still wide open, there for the taking, for the team that puts their hand up. But all you can do is play as well as you can. Thankfully we put in a good performance."

So, is there another gear to come? "Yeah, I'd like to think so. I thought it was a very solid, consistent performance today. For the first 15 minutes I thought we defended well, apart from the try. I'd like to think we have something else to kick into when asked upon us. Fingers crossed, the confidence we take from that result today will enable us to do that."

One enormous boost is that Marcus Horan's neck injury is not serious. The Munster loosehead was taken to hospital last night for an X-ray, but this was just precautionary.

"Marcus Horan is fine. He took a knock to his neck. At the time he thought he had a crack in it. We took all the right precautions in getting him off the pitch, which often makes these things look worse than they are," said O'Sullivan, who refused to lay the blame on Welsh replacement Gethin Jenkins.

"I know Gethin Jenkins. He's a good lad. He would never do anything intentionally. It was unfortunate, he was trying to clear the ruck and he happened to hit Marcus down on top of the head with his shoulder. It could happen to anybody. There is no malice in that. Just unfortunate."