I think there was a degree of nervousness coming into the Scotland game.
Scotland had certainly been talking up their chances all week. A lot of the players that had missed the Six Nations were back in their team, they had the most experienced side ever.
But the quality of the performance, to be 14-0 up after 16 minutes, was superb.
The core tenets of Ireland's game, in terms of their set-piece, was so competent in that opening period it was outstanding. The confidence grew from there.
Scotland appeared shell-shocked whereas the Irish players just grew and grew as the game went on.
Having watched South Africa against New Zealand on Saturday, you would take your chances against South Africa. They have certain qualities but I think Ireland can cope with what they might bring.
If you're going to meet New Zealand, better to meet them later in the tournament.
Joe Schmidt was very much geared to winning this opening game and it now puts them in control of the pool.
I think he will be thrilled with the manner in which some of the guys like Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway, Josh van der Flier came into the side.
The likes of Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Joey Carbery, even Robbie Henshaw, will be scratching their heads thinking 'this is going to be a difficult team to get back into'.
That's what you want, and there's an opportunity now over the next three games to involve all the players in the squad.
Obviously you have to respect Japan, and that's going to happen next Saturday, but there's a massive carrot at the end of this, which in all probability will be South Africa in a few weeks' time.
I think the performance yesterday was the closest that we've seen to the levels the team produced when they had that incredible year in 2018.
The set-piece solidity, the kicking game from Murray and Sexton was outstanding, the defence, when you go back to that horror show at Twickenham, in some respects it might be the best thing that ever happened.
Certainly it has focused the minds in terms of the defensive organisation and it was a class showing yesterday.
There were question marks over the back three. Larmour, Stockdale and Conway had never played together as unit. Between Kearney and Earls you were losing 180 caps. Yet they stood up to the mark and it's great to know that they can do that.
If it is South Africa, it will be a challenge of an entirely different nature, and that's something they will be assessing over the next couple of weeks.
But right now, this Irish squad couldn't be in a better place.
Donal Lenihan was speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland programme.
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