Tom Court, the Ulster loose head who played such a prominent role in Ireland’s resounding victory over Fiji, revealed that the mood in the victors’ dressing room afterwards had been “pretty good”.

He said yesterday: “Everybody was pretty happy. The guys who got a chance were pleased with how it went for them.”

“Before you play there’s always an underlying thing — knowing that if you don’t go well, questions are going to be asked. So because things went pretty well there haven't been any of those questions.

“Our analysis of the Fijians was more or less spot on. We’d looked at what they were likely to do and they did pretty much exactly what we were expecting. Our preparation was good.”

Referring to his team mate Jonathan Sexton’s man of the match-winning debut Court said: “That didn’t surprise me. He’s a very good player who has been playing well for some time.

“He’d a lot of Leinster colleagues around him and he was playing at the RDS so to him, I suppose, it was like another home game. But he had a fine match.

“That’s going to be a tight call now whether he or Ronan (O’Gara) starts against South Africa, but there are one or two of those.”

Meanwhile Sexton, whose flawless display at out-half saw him kick 16 points by landing a perfect five out of five conversions – three of them from close to touch, two on the left and one on the right – plus two penalties, was coolness personified at full-time.

He went out of his way to ensure that no-one left the RDS believing they had been watching a one-man show.

“Obviously I’m delighted. It was a big day for me and my whole family and I was happy with how it went,” he said. “Those were tough conditions, but the forwards in front of me put in a big performance and provided a platform.

“And I had Brian (O’Driscoll) outside me, so that was a big help.”

And coach Declan Kidney gave nothing away as to what he is thinking in the O’Gara-Sexton question.

“”We’ve always said we wanted to build a squad and this is all part of that. Let’s just see who turns up at training on Monday,” he said.

“This is the way you want it. You have to have others coming through. There’ll be a bit more debate, no doubt, but that’s half the fun of it. We’re playing the World champions so we’ll give that a go and just try our best.”