Farrell's Ireland breeze to comfortable win over Romania in World Cup opener
UP AND RUNNING: Ireland’s Bundee Aki celebrates with Conor Murray after scoring. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
Ireland romped to a record World Cup victory as they ran in 12 tries against Romania to get their Pool B campaign up and running in style on Saturday.
Two tries apiece from returning captain Johnny Sexton, part of a 24-point haul in his first game since the Grand Slam win over England on March 18, man of the match Peter O’Mahony, Bundee Aki and Tadhg Beirne led the way for Andy Farrell’s world number one side with additional scores from Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan, Rob Herring and Joe McCarthy that left the sizeable Irish contingent singing the Cranberries’ Zombie at full-time.
Whether Ireland will be in the heads of pool rivals South Africa and Scotland after this performance remains to be seen but the men in green have hit the ground running in France and their captain successfully negotiated his first 65 minutes of action in six months with no apparent ill effects.
The scoreline topped the 64-7 victory over Namibia in 2003, comfortably establishing new Irish World Cup record points totals and winning margins.
It was not unexpected but only after Romania had stunned the Bordeaux crowd by taking the lead after just two minutes.
Sexton had broken up a long rally of kick tennis with a grubber kick up the right touchline for Keith Earls to chase. Romanian fly-half Hinckley Vaovasa read it perfectly, cutting out the veteran wing with a clean pick up and racing upfield in the void left by Earls. The inside pass to half-back partner Gabriel Rupanu was well judged and the scrum-half raced over the line to give the Oaks an unlikely lead after 130 seconds.
It delighted the small band of Romanian supporters and the neutrals among an Irish-dominated crowd of 41,177 but Rupanu failed to convert the simple conversion from just left of the posts.
The try-scorers’ miss quickly came back to bite his side, Gibson-Park profiting from a powerful Bundee Aki line break to trot over the line at the opposite end with Sexton’s conversion pushing Ireland in front on five minutes.
From there it was all Ireland, Hugo Keenan finishing a superb passage of passing rugby with a neat pirouette under the posts after great hands from forwards Peter O’Mahony and James Ryan after 12 minutes, again converted by the captain.
Tadhg Beirne’s winger’s finish in the left corner five minutes later gave Sexton more work to do with his kick and he missed his conversion from close to the touchline and Rupano’s penalty on 21 minutes closed the gap to 19-8. The score seemed to slow Ireland down and it would take another 14 minutes to add to trouble the scoreboard.
Yet two quick tries before half-time, with Romania’s full-back Marius Simionescu in the sin bin after 32 minutes, not only brought up the try bonus point as Bundee Aki straightened his line in the left-wing channels to power over the line but also provided Sexton with his fourth World Cup try having first scored against Canada in the 2015 tournament.
The only concern was the apparent knock to Sexton’s wrist from the tackle he took over the tryline but it did not prevent the captain from converting his own score to give Ireland a 33-8 half-time lead.
Sexton returned for the second half and Simionescu restored Romania to their full complement shortly after but the extra man could not stop Ireland adding to their tally, Rob Herring and O’Mahony scoring tries on 44 and 49 minutes respectively. Sexton’s conversions of both pushing the scoreline to 47-8.
That it was the captain who pushed his team through the 50-point barrier was entirely fitting, Sexton claiming his second try of the afternoon from close-range and converting from close to the posts before making way for Jack Crowley after a hugely encouraging 65 minutes of game time.
Sexton was just the latest in a flurry of players called ashore, their jobs done after Romania began to wilt, the new blood including a late addition to the bench in Mack Hansen, in for Robbie Henshaw who had been withdrawn as a precautionary measure..
Hansen, the only absentee from an otherwise full-strength starting Irish backline replaced Test centurion Earls but the wing’s finishing prowess was not required as Ireland moved through the gears. Lock Joe McCarthy became the third World Cup debutant to score a try after Gibson-Park and Keenan when he touched down on 66 minutes, quickly followed by a second try apiece for O’Mahony and then Aki, Crowley converting all three as Ireland moved into a 75-8 lead.
Beirne’s try at the death, converted by Crowley pushed Ireland passed the 80-point barrier for an opening job well done.
: H Keenan; K Earls (M Hansen, 59), G Ringrose, B Aki, J Lowe; J Sexton– captain (J Crowley, 65), J Gibson-Park (C Murray, 59); A Porter (J Loughman, 50), R Herring (R Kelleher, 50), T Furlong (T O’Toole, 50); J McCarthy, J Ryan (I Henderson, 55); T Beirne, P O’Mahony, C Doris (J van der Flier, 55).
: M Simionescu; N Onutu, J Tomane, F Tangimana (T Manumua, 66), T Manumua (T Gontineac, 57); H Vaovasa (T Boldor, 61), G Rupanu (A Conache, 74); I Hartig (A Savin, 48), O Cojocaru (F Bardasu, 54), A Gordas (G Gajion, 52); A Motoc, S Iancu (M Iftimiciuc, 61); F Rosu (D Ser, 61), V Neculau, C Chirica – captain.
Yellow Card: Simionescu 32-42Â
: Nika Amakusheli (Georgia) end
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