It was a thoroughly professional and controlled performance by Wales.

The first 25 minutes of the game was very stop-start, which suited Ireland more than Wales. You could see Ireland wanted to take the sting and the tempo out of the Welsh game - there were a lot of set-pieces, which was not what Wales would have wanted, but they coped with what Ireland threw at them.

That was a problem for Ireland - they were very limited in terms of their ambition. I expected a bit more fire, a bit more intention from Ireland.

As soon as the flow started coming into the game, Wales grew in confidence. As soon as Shane Horgan’s try was disallowed, the steam seemed to go out of Ireland.

Wales started creating good quality ball, creating overlaps and in fact should have been comfortably ahead at half-time. Capitalising on opportunities is something Wales will probably have to work on because they won adequate ball, played with a lot of width and created chances.

There were some stand-out performances from Wales.

Jonathan Thomas and Ryan Jones were superb in the back row. Jones particularly showed great leadership qualities and was a great ball-carrying threat.

Gavin Henson and Tom Shanklin were very solid in midfield - they really made life difficult for the Irish.

Wales had to capitalise on one of their chances and thankfully the ball fell into Shane Williams’ hands. The man is on fire. You don’t score 40 international tries without having a great hunger and desire to get over the line.

You could sense the relief in Welsh faces that an opportunity had been taken. I thought the scoreline did not reflect Wales’ superiority - they were comfortably the better side but the scoreboard didn’t show that so there was always a nervousness Ireland could have stolen the game when they didn’t deserve to.

Now we’re looking forward to the big match on Saturday. We’re all delighted with the progress Wales have made game on game throughout this RBS 6 Nations tournament - that’s all you can hope for.

I really fancy Wales’ chances at home against France. The players are full of confidence. This improvement has happened in the space of six or seven weeks. I’m just enthused about the prospects of what levels this team can reach.

Who knows what selection France will throw up this weekend? It’s a concern because it makes it hard to prepare. But what Wales need to do is concentrate on their own game and continue their progress.