It took the home side just five minutes to open the scoring with influential flanker David Wallace the key figure. He sucked in the Welsh defence before releasing wing Geordan Murphy for a simple score, Humphreys kicking the conversion to put Ireland seven points ahead.

Wales' woes soon increased as lock Chris Wyatt limped off with ankle ligament damage after just nine minutes, to be replaced by Ian Gough. Wyatt was followed to the dressing room by Jamie Robinson with Andy Marinos coming on to earn his first cap.

Ireland were enjoying early domination as they sought to make the most of playing with the wind at their backs in the first half and Humphreys added two penalties. Another penalty allowed Humphreys to kick to the corner and from the resulting line-out, debutant Paul O'Connell, aided by the rest of the pack, was able to force his way over the line for Ireland's second try.

The penalty count was heavily against Wales. It gave Humphreys the chance to increase Ireland's lead to 21-0. Stephen Jones finally put Wales on the board with a penalty that proved the last kick of the half.

Ireland scored their third try early in the second half. Wales were guilty of losing the ball in midfield, John Hayes made the initial break and Kevin Maggs surged towards the line before releasing Murphy from the tackle for the winger's second try. Humphreys converted from in front of the posts and three minutes later added another penalty to put the home side 34-3 ahead.

Another Humphreys penalty increased the gap and the miserable afternoon continued with Rob Howley, who was celebrating becoming Wales' most-capped scrum-half this afternoon, being forced off with a head injury.

To their credit Wales refused to give in and were rewarded for their efforts after 63 minutes as Jones squeezed over in the corner after good work from Scott Quinnell and Gough. Jones also added the conversion to make the score 37-10.

Ireland could even afford to make four substitutions at once - including taking off Peter Clohessy on the occasion of his 50th cap - and promptly score another try, Humphreys releasing Denis Hickie to race over the line.

Humphreys missed the conversion and that proved to be his last act of the afternoon - Ronan O'Gara coming on. O'Gara's first act was to kick a simple conversion from under the posts. That came after substitute Keith Gleeson scored under the posts with his first touch, the beneficiary of some fancy footwork from O'Driscoll who dribbled down field and collected the bouncing ball before releasing Gleeson to finish off the move.

There was still time for O'Gara to score a try of his own and take Ireland over the 50-point mark, a true reflection of their almost total dominance.