Ireland in strong lead at half-time

Half-time score: Ireland 26 Romania 0

Shane Horgan has marked his return to the Irish fold with a try against Romania at Gosford.

Making only his fifth appearance in Ireland's last 20 internationals, the injury-plagued Leinster winger crashed over after 24 minutes to finally break the plucky Romanians’ rugged defence.

With a blustery wind at their backs, Ireland seized the initiative with a second score from skipper Keith Wood, fly-half David Humphreys maintaining a 100% record with the boot to ease his side into a comfortable half-time lead.

An injury to Brian O'Driscoll early on in the match is not thought to have been serious, though he received attention for some minutes.

O’Driscoll needed treatment after being caught by Petru Balan’s late tackle but quickly recovered as Ireland stepped up the pace.

Romania looked most vulnerable when the Irish moved the ball wide at pace and when full-back Girvan Dempsey broke down the left flank, the plucky Eastern Europeans ran out of cover.

Dempsey found Kevin Maggs with an inside pass and though Gabriel Brezoianu gamely held him up, returning winger Shane Horgan was on hand to score a try on his first international appearance for eight months.

Four minutes before the interval, Anthony Foley broke down the left and though he was stopped, when scrum-half Peter Stringer picked the ball out of the ruck and fed Wood, the gap was too large to ignore and the front-row steamed through for Ireland’s second touchdown.

Humphreys added a fourth penalty in stoppage time to take his personal haul to 16.