The first quarter of an hour I expected a fierce onslaught from the Scots, but it never materialised. It was a weak, abject performance by the hosts in the opening half - but a dream start for Wales.

It was fast, open, furious and loose - exactly what Wales wanted and Scotland did not. The Scots never built up a sustained head of steam.

We were able to offload at will and there was so much space in the broken field for neat interplay that we were in our element.

With places in the British & Irish Lions' squad to tour New Zealand up for grabs, its always important to match up against your positional competitors.

In the head-to-head between Dwayne Peel and Chris Cusiter for the scrum-half berth, I think Peel, with his man-of-the-match display in Edinburgh, won that battle.

Gethin Jenkins had a very effective game at prop and Tom Shanklin, albeit against a poor Scottish defence, was outstanding in the midfield.

Wales were entertaining, full of self-belief, and showed talent in abundance.

It was almost too easy.

However, it was more difficult to perform in the second half as Scotland came back strongly and were really competitive.

When you concede momentum it's quite hard to get it back again in the modern game - and that's a valuable lesson for Wales to have learned ahead of next week's crucial final match with Ireland at the Millennium Stadium.

We cant afford to allow the opposition to dictate the play.

The match against Ireland will be an altogether bigger test. This was all over as a contest after 17 minutes - and that won't happen on Saturday.

Wales will be in for a much more physical game against a talented Irish side who will be keen to redeem themselves after a disappointing show against France.

Ireland never really turned up at Lansdowne Road this weekend and seemed to lack ambition as they stumbled to a 26-19 defeat.

But they will be a difficult proposition as they still have the Triple Crown and a chance of the RBS 6 Nations Championship to play for.

A lot will depend now on how Wales handle the weight of expectation. Mike Ruddock has done a great job in deflecting external pressures from the team and he has an important role to play in keeping the players' feet on the ground.

Ireland have not lost on Welsh soil for 22 years and it would be fantastic to bring that record to an end on Saturday - to give us a first Grand Slam since 1978.