Ireland's call hasn't really been embraced as a rousing battle cry by Irish supporters, despite the best efforts of the IRFU. The anthem is blasted out over the tannoy system at Lansdowne Road and the players diligently scream the lyrics.

So it must have been heartening for the IRFU to notice that the song is, belatedly, catching on, albeit with the Georgian team. Last Saturday, prior to the World Cup qualifier, they swayed, to a man, in time to the music, obviously enjoying the melody.

Perhaps they were just gracious visitors keen to join in what was expected to be an Irish party, where their honest but limited efforts would earn them sympathy but little else as they were submerged under an avalanche of tries.

Their hosts, ever generous, tried to make them feel at home by organising a surprise lights failure in the interview area after the match, drawing a humorous response from one Georgian official: "Ah, like in Georgia, like in Georgia. We know this situation."

Georgia even displayed the good grace not to field their first XV, instead saving that body of men for Wednesday's clash with Romania. Georgia's French-born coach, Claude Sorrel, made this clear: "I tried to keep back the maximum number of players that I could in the squad of 26, so in essence I tried to save 11 players."

Seven of the elite enjoyed bench duty, and a number were called into action. Sorrel's candour encapsulates Georgia's priority . . . to try to beat Romania. He admitted they were surprised to concede 70 points: the Georgians believed that they would lose by 40 points.

"Romania is the key match. They are favourites because they have more experience. We have got to find a way of preparing ourselves for that extra experience. When you are down it is very hard to come up again." Georgia's preparations for the World Cup qualifiers included two matches in France.

Sorrel, who coached the Morocco national side which played Irish provinces on tour here last year, confessed that he is "a fan of the Irish style. They have improved since the last time and can cause problems for many teams. They are a well balanced side. The rest of my analysis I am keeping for my French coaching friends."

He added that there were several aspects of his team's performance that disappointed him: "We did not keep up our tackling, probably because we are not quite physically strong enough. We also did not use possession as I would like."

Ireland coach Warren Gatland, manager Donal Lenihan and captain Paddy Johns were brief in their appraisal of the afternoon's exercise. Gatland affirmed: "It's pleasing the fact that we scored 70 points, 10 tries.

"Just talking to the players they felt they were a bit tentative to start with, we weren't happy. We thought that we had trained well during the week but we got out there and were just a bit apprehensive really."

The vexed issue of Keith Wood was discussed as a subheading under Ross Nesdale's injury, Lenihan affirmed: "He had damaged it slightly during the week but was passed fit. The cold did not help and he stretched it after 10 or 15 minutes. "We will make a final decision on the injury later today after we see how he reacts." When asked whether Wood would be introduced to the squad, Lenihan smiled: "Who's that," before adding "Keith indicated an Thursday night that he is going to sign the contract. I'm quite sure that having seen Ross come off he'll definitely sign the contract. If Ross is out then he would probably be the next man in."

The Irish manager conceded that the match took panned out predictably from an Irish perspective. "We knew that they were going to be physical, we knew that given it was our first game it was going to take us a long time to get our own patterns going. "We were happy with certain aspects of our play. Handling skills were better. We were trying to stay on our feet more, which we didn't do in the first half. It's the first step, we have got to be realistic and look at the quality of the opposition. Next Saturday is going to be harder. We are happy that we scored 70 points, accepting that there are a lot of areas that need to be improved upon."