Both teams were looking to step up their preparations ahead of the World Cup in Belfast in August with Britain, the Beijing 2008 gold medallist, also keen to use the exhibition match at the Regional Arena to demonstrate the sport to a new audience.

And the hosts, who are ranked number two in the world, certainly turned on the style for the home crowd as they overwhelmed Ireland in emphatic fashion.

"The key is to try and get the first ball onto the jack and then put the pressure on from there," said Britain's captain Nigel Murray.

"We built up the pressure to try and get back into the driving seat and momentum back our way.

"It's a good warm-up for us.

"It's a good marker to get down.

"I felt we were in the driving seat in the first end but then they had a couple of lucky shots and it went their way.

"But we put that behind us and then we went on from there.

"We train regularly together in a number of places, including the EIS (English Institute of Sport) in Sheffield or near where I live in Warwick and that training is obviously paying off here."

In the opening end, Britain looked comfortably in control before Ireland's captain Gabriel Shelly used his last ball to lead.

But the 1-0 lead to Ireland proved to be the first and last point they would take following an unanswerable British onslaught.

The greatest damage to the score line came in the fourth end when Ireland had played their six balls and Britain had four remaining.

Murray showed why he is the individual number one player in the world with a shot that pushed the jack away from the head and into the path of two blue balls already on court.

Dan Bentley then lobbed the head and made it three to Britain before David Smith saw a vacant channel and sliced through it, twice, to give his team a strong finish to the end and ensuring they led 7-1.

Britain managed to extend their lead by one more point in the fifth and then followed a double substitution, seeing Bentley replaced by Zoe Robinson and Andrew Morgan on for Smith.

With their new players in the game, Britain finished with a Murray-Morgan combination with the final two balls seeing them triumph 10-1.

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