O'Sullivan eases to title

For his troubles the Rocket picked up a cheque for £13,500 and also the recently named Paul Hunter trophy.

O'Sullivan did the hard graft in the afternoon session when he took a commanding 7-1 lead after having lost the first frame.

However, he did all this despite never reaching the same heights that he did in the semi-finals when a 147 helped him to beat John Higgins.

Instead, solid if unspectacular breaks of 57 and 60 helped him go 5-1 up before he finally knocked down his first century break, a 122 effort, which made it 6-1.

O'Sullivan then slogged his way to the final frame of the session 66-7, but then turned on the style in the first frame of the evening with a magnificent clearance of 138.

An 80 break in the final frame saw him take the title, and O'Sullivan said afterwards that the crowd had helped to victory.

"It's fantastic to play in Ireland, it's a great place to come because you get great support. The Irish love their snooker,” he said.

"All the players were depressed when the ranking event over here got cancelled, but hopefully this is the start of many more tournaments.”