Lets not get carried away yet.

• Lets not get carried away yet.
  
  First of, what Ireland produced on Saturday was encouraging and exciting. The unprecedented dominance of the contact area was staggering, especially considering the back line behmoths that Wales possessed in their ranks. Simon Zebo and Craig Gilroy against North and Cuthbert looks like a bit of a mismatch on paper. However, largely speaking, the two Irish wingers Made all the right decisions when called into action, notably Gilroy's crunching tackle on Leigh Halfpenny. For the forwards, the amount of tackles and work rate they got through was remarkable. The omnipresent Rory Best was belligerent and relentless in defence. Some of the best Flankers around would have been proud of his disruptive work on the ground, especially the turnover he won when wales were nearly underneath the Irish posts. Sean O'Brien and Mike McCarthy's tackle count was through the roof. There was never really a moment in the first half when our hearts were in the mouth, an ominous breach of our defences never really came into fruition due to industrious and unrelenting endeavours from 1-15.
  
  And what about in attack. Much has been said about Brian O'Driscoll's commanding performance throughout the game. His movement and pass for Zebo's try was simply sublime. George Hook claimed he has never seen a better pass throughout his rugby career. Admittedly, one struggles to find a better pass or even an instance when so much was made of a single distribution in a match. Maybe something from Stephen Larkham's repatoire.
  
  

  

  
  BOD claimed after the match that it doesn't make a difference whether he has the captain's armband or not, he still leads and 'helps out jamie where he can'. However If we cast our minds back to the Lions in 2009, BOD looked like he had more freedom (mental or otherwise)to display his world class abilities without regimental restrictions thus producing mesmerising performances in the red of the lions. If only more consideration was given to changing the Irish captaincy shortly after that tour, or at least experimenting here and there, we could have seen more of these world beating passes and unplayable performances in the 6 nations.Alas hindsight is always 20/20
  
  This is all well and good, but its dangerous to get carried away. Especially when taking into account Wales' dismal first half display. They look lost without their mastermind coach Warren Gatland. And Jonathan Davies unequivocally having his worst outing in a welsh shirt, disrupting any fluidity in midfield. Jamie Roberts' impact on the game was minimal. And Perhaps, not enough has been made of Rhys Priestland's absence. For Wales to salvage their campaign it is now paramount that the young fly half returns as soon as possible because Biggar, who to be fair hasn't much experience at this level failed for the most part to Marshall his back line and did not stamp his mark on the game. Whereas Sexton was the opposite. Wales were out of sorts and they won't always wield that train-like momentum that the millennium stadium generates that yields consecutive scores which seen them come back into the game in the second half.
  

  

  
  

  
  
  Ostensibly, England will pose quite a different test. They looked impressive against Scotland, albeit not as magnificent as their media would have you believe, but nonetheless a force to be reckoned with. They might loose their barnstorming number 8 Ben Morgan which, evidently, will change the balance of their back row with the likely alternative being Tom Wood and moving James Haskell to blind side  For England, it is readily visible that Beating the all blacks in December was massive for them (as with anyone to be fair) and Manu Tuilagi was instrumental in that victory. He's important to this English side and with his comeback likely on Sunday and with our somewhat inconsistent home record at the Aviva, England will certainly fancy their chances. Though if I'm saying not get carried away from an Irish point of view, then that goes double for England, for English sport is usually poisoned by over hyping and unrealistic expectations which to be fair on English Squads they can do nothing about their over zealous, and at times poisonous media. Though this time they could be the real deal and will be concious how pivotal this fixture is.
  
  Though if messieurs O'driscoll, O'Brien and Best have similar days at the office like they did in Cardiff on Saturday, i say bring it on.