There was sense of a job well done at the Aviva stadium on Sunday as Ireland dispatched Scotland with a three try, 28-6 win, but perhaps not much more. While there were no worries to take from the game there is always the realty that no matter how comprehensive a performance was produced, there would still be a mass of unanswered questions.

Eddie O’Sullivan and Bernard Jackman were on Off the Ball tonight for Monday Night Rugby and while they were happy to accept that Scotland at home was most likely going to prove to be the most straightforward of tasks in this year’s Six Nations, there was still a conviction from both men that this was a performance to take heart from, with the second half in particular seeing several very good performances and Peter O’Mahony delivery

Eddie spoke about the improvement in the second half, and why he feels those 40 minutes of rugby offered us a window into the style of game Joe Schmidt will look to play during his tenure as Ireland manager: “Rob Kearney’s try was the epitome of how Joe Schmidt wants to play,” Eddie said.

“I thought it was an excellent performance. You can only play the team in front of you.

“Ireland had to defend and they did....You have to give credit where credit is due. They kept Scotland scoreless...the try-line was pretty much never threatened.

“We had the lines share of possession in the second half and you just saw the damage we could do,” Eddie said.

Bernard took a look at individual performances on the team, and found that, while there were no poor performances, there were several standout performers, and none more so than Peter O’Mahony: “I thought Peter O’Mahony was outstanding and possibly if he’d played the full 80 he would have been man of the match.

“I thought Cian Healy, with Sean O’Brien being out; he carried very well, always going for the gain line.

“Sexton has had in and out form with racing metro...but I thought he controlled the game very well...with the game plan he looked very comfortable.

“There were hardly any bad performances but to be honest, for me, Peter O’Mahony was the standout.”

There was also a look at Brian O’Driscoll’s performance, Jamie Heaslip’s return – albeit briefly – to the captaincy and what we can learn from England’s defeat to France and Wales nearly coming unstuck against Italy in Cardiff.

You can listen to the full chat via the Monday Night Rugby Podcast