Rugby:An enjoyable oul' romp to say farewell to the oul' ground, decorated by an eight-tries-to-three, 61-17 victory over opponents who were tailor-made to join in the party, oodles of green ticker tape, and all to the backdrop of A Time to Say Goodbyeby Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. It could have been tacky but in truth it was relatively tasteful.

What nostalgia there was - the interval featured a four-minute clip from grainy black-and-white through to modern times - was diluted by the players' larks on the park during the lap of honour.

The older guard, such as Denis Hickie, Paul O'Connell and John Hayes, not to mention the typically ebullient Gordon D'Arcy, donated much of their clothing to the crowd - with Ronan O'Gara and Donncha O'Callaghan giving their jerseys to supporters in the wheelchair section at the front of the South Terrace.

The new caps, understandably, were cherishing their mementoes of the day.

For Paddy Wallace, in his first international start and in a jersey that had become the possession of the O'Gara-David Humphreys duopoly for eight years, there was also a man-of-the-match award for his calm and assured-looking performance, punctuated by a 26-point haul.

There were also satisfactory debuts for Luke Fitzgerald, Jamie Heaslip and Stephen Ferris, though how real or relevant much of this was in the context of the World Cup, or the Six Nations, remains moot.

In any event, Ireland finished off a feel-good "autumn" series with three wins out of three, and palpably brimming with confidence, retained their shape impressively even though Peter Stringer and Hickie were the only Irish backs to play the full 80 minutes in their nominal starting positions.

Coach Eddie O'Sullivan was satisfied, if not elated: "I'm happy with the autumn internationals on the basis we were seeking three good performances and three good wins, and to try and build the squad a bit. We got as much out of the autumn as we possibly could, and overall I'm happy with our performances. And 26 players started the three matches so all in all it was a good month's work, and there's a lot of stuff in the bank that we can build on after Christmas."

Admitting the game became "a bit messy and a bit all over the place", O'Sullivan hailed the team's willingness to become more direct and patient, and declared Wallace "had a super game", adding: "On a balance sheet you couldn't complain too much, and there were an awful lot of positives out of it."

The garlands keep coming, the Islanders' head coach Pat Lam joining the chorus of people willing to rate Ireland behind only the mighty All Blacks: "We turned over too much ball in the second half, and Ireland showed why they are the second-best team in the world," he said.

"They taught us a lot about teamwork. Their systems were excellent, and they really put us under pressure. Ireland are far superior to Wales and Scotland. They have improved greatly over the last 12 months and they're physically bigger than in the past," he added tellingly.

"They will definitely be favourites for the Six Nations and are in a good place with the World Cup coming up."

This is almost uncomfortable, and ironically a semblance of a reality check will be provided by the latest, and end-of-year IRB world rankings today. As the Islands game carries no ranking points, Australia and South Africa - by dint of their away wins in Scotland and England on Saturday - are set to jump back above Ireland, leaving Ireland, curiously, back where they started the month, in fifth place.

Whatever. While the fear of defeat was never truly on the agenda, there always lurked the fear Ireland would sustain plenty of physical wounds, and this was perhaps reflected in a performance that saw the players seek to outmanoeuvre the Islanders in skirmishes rather than engage them in full-on combat.

After an early Hickie try, Ireland coughed up two tries and saw their lead shrink to 16-12 after 35 minutes.

There followed an unofficial time-out, which ensured that come the lap of honour, one man walking more gingerly than anyone else was Girvan Dempsey.

The fullback actually lost consciousness briefly when hit, legally but wincingly, by Seru Rabeni, and though, astonishingly, he recovered to play on until half-time, he was then withdrawn. He was, according to O'Sullivan, still "a bit ropy", which was probably putting it mildly.

Dempsey has a badly bruised cheekbone and he'll have to undergo a scan today, but otherwise there weren't any lasting knocks or bruises to add to Leinster's awful news that Felipe Contepomi's knee injury in Argentina's 27-26 defeat to France on Saturday will probably sideline him for six weeks.

Ireland responded to the lengthy delay for treatment to Dempsey by refocusing - a pre-interval double whammy of tries ensuring a 30-12 interval lead - and thereafter ran in another four second-half tries to complete a relatively routine win, their seventh in a row at headquarters.

On the last international at the world's oldest international ground before scheduled redevelopment, O'Sullivan admitted it had been an emotional afternoon and told a tale that assuredly could have been echoed by many yesterday.

"The significance of what was happening really hit me when we arrived on the team bus," he said. "One of the officials who shakes the players' hands as they walk into the stadium mentioned it would be the last time he did it and at that point it really hit home for me.

"Over the years Lansdowne Road has been worth at least seven points to us because there has always been great emotion between the crowd and the team in Lansdowne Road. The lads will tell you it's worth seven or 10 points in a game, and hopefully Croke Park will be a bigger version of that and when we get back we'll have the same environment that we left today.

"But this was a great way to finish things."

Any sense of sadness is more than compensated for by the sense of what may lie ahead next year. Giddy times all right.