Simon Easterby hailed his side's composure as they maintained their perfect start to the Guinness Six Nations.
The defending champions cleared the second hurdle of their quest for a third title in a row with a comprehensive 32-18 win against Scotland at Murrayfield.
It was a dominant Irish win, swatting aside a mini Scottish fightback either side of half-time before eventually strolling to an 11th win in a row in the fixture.
Tries for Calvin Nash and Caelan Doris, plus a penalty and two conversions from man of the match Sam Prendergast saw Ireland race into a 17-0 lead, and although the Scots clawed their way back to 17-11 early in the second half, James Lowe and Jack Conan quickly added scores to snuff out any hopes of a comeback.
"I think you are always going to come up against a purple patch," the Ireland interim head coach (below) said.
"But we always knew that they were going to come out of blocks and try and stress us defensively. And at times we dealt with it really well and at times they stretched us, and that’s part of the game.
"I thought we scrambled well. We managed to turn around a few situations where they got a little bit of ascendancy and we kept them at arm’s length. Then we had the opportunity to go up the other end and be clinical with the ball."
Having started slowly in the opening game against England last week, Ireland had no such sluggishness this week, needing just eight minutes to take the lead when Nash was played in by Prendergast for the opening try, from which Ireland never looked back.
"Although we conceded late in the first half, I thought the scoreline was a reflection of our dominance in the game and maybe we could have been one or two scores up," Easterby added.
"Pleased with the application of the players. I think we always knew that we’d have to shut them down and stop them getting time and space and momentum.
"I thought we did really that without the ball but also on attack I felt like we delivered a lot of what we had worked on in the week around trying to attack Scotland in the right way."
Easterby was particularly pleased with the application of his forwards, who continually won the battle for the gainline, while their scrum was a real source of success, and was the source of two of the four tries.
"I thought the forward pack was excellent. I think the attack was good. Out set-piece 'D’ was excellent and it's so difficult for a team to get into their rhythm when they're getting scrappy ball when their delivery of lineouts and scrums isn't what they'd like.
"I think that [forwards] unit, on both sides of the ball, in attack and defence, laid a great platform for us."
With a bye-week ahead, Easterby’s players will get to enjoy rest in the coming days, before attention turns to Cardiff on 22 February where they can secure a Triple Crown.
With Ireland on the hunt for an unprecedented three men’s Six Nations titles in a row, a Triple Crown looks like the minimum that should be expected after two bonus-point wins, but the Ireland coach was reluctant to look beyond the meeting with a beleaguered Welsh side.
"I think we set out at the beginning of this championship to work hard, keep getting better, keep challenging each other in terms of the standards and I think we're seeing some of that today.
"There is an opportunity which has been well documented and we've got to make sure that we prepare in the right way for Wales and go to the Millennium Stadium with the same sort of mindset that we came here with," he added.
