The Irish followed up convincing wins over South Africa and Australia with a 61-17 demolition of the Pacific Islanders at Lansdowne Road to sign off the series in champagne style.

"I'm happy with the autumn internationals on the basis we produced three good performances and three good wins," said the Ireland boss.

"We got as much out of the autumn as we possibly could and overall I'm delighted with our performances.

"We used 26 players over the three games so we were able to look at some new guys as well.

"It was a good month's work and there is a lot of stuff in the bank that will stand us in good stead for the Six Nations."

Lansdowne Road's final international before redevelopment begins in January was marked by some dazzling rugby and O'Sullivan was delighted the world's oldest rugby ground was given a victorious send off.

"It was an emotional afternoon - the significance of what was happening really hit me when we arrived on the team bus," he said.

"One of the officials who shakes the players' hands as they walk into the stadium mentioned it would be the last time he did it and at that point it really hit home for me.

"Over the years Lansdowne Road has been worth at least seven points to us because there has always been so much emotion between the ground, team and fans.

"This was a great way to finish things."

Simon Easterby ran in two tries - and Paddy Wallace, Denis Hickie, Malcolm O'Kelly, Shane Horgan, Rory Best and Paul O'Connell also crossed in a ruthless rout.

Ulster fly-half Wallace was named man of the match following a performance which suggests Ireland have genuine cover for Ronan O'Gara.

The 27-year-old kicked 21 points, missing just two shots at goal, and touched down in first-half injury-time for a richly deserved try.

O'Sullivan said: "Paddy had a super game at 10. It was a hard game to control, but he managed it. His kicking off the ground was excellent."

Luke Fitzgerald, Jamie Heaslip and Stephen Ferris made their Test debuts - and O'Sullivan was delighted with them.

He said: "Luke did very well. The Islanders' backs are fast footballers. Luke did very well and dropped into full-back when Girvan Dempsey went off.

"He could have backed himself a bit more, if I wanted to be critical. He needs to pin his ears back and go.

"It's still a learning curve for him, but he showed he's capable of playing Test rugby.

"Jamie and Stephen did well in a match that was brutal at times. They made some hard yards and defended well."

O'Sullivan knew it could not be pretty throughout.

"Overall I was happy with the team's performance. At times it got messy - but then we were playing against a side who like to play fast and loose," he said.

"It would be hard to be as cohesive as we were in the last few weeks, because we showed nine changes and three new caps.

"We lost our shape a bit after a good start. We needed to be directed - and once we did that, we had much better shape to our game.

"But the Islanders are big hitters, and that makes life difficult."

Islanders head coach Pat Lam hailed Ireland as the second-best team in the world and declared they are "far superior" to previous tour opponents Wales and Scotland.

He said: "We're disappointed by the result. We got off to a rocky start, but the boys got back and scored a good try to put us just 16-12 behind.

"Ireland then scored those two tries just before half-time, and that really rocked us.

"We turned over too much ball in the second half, and Ireland showed why they are the second-best team in the world. They taught us a lot about team-work.

"Their systems were excellent, and they really put us under pressure. Ireland are far superior to Wales and Scotland.

"They have improved greatly over the last 12 months and they're physically bigger than in the past.

"They will definitely be favourites for the Six Nations and are in a good place with the World Cup coming up."