World Number 1 Ireland made a perfect start to the 2023 Rugby World Cup hammering Romania 82-8 in their opening Pool B match in France on Sunday.
Romania shed the first blood in the game as Gabriel Rupanu finished an early counter-attack to put them ahead with an unconverted try in the third minute.
Ireland responded harshly with three consecutive tries in a span of next 15 minutes through Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan and Tadhg Beirne while Johnny Sexton converted twice for the Six Nations title holders.
Rupanu tried to bring Romania back in the game with a penalty but things got worse full-back Marius Simionescu was sin-binned for obstruction.
Ireland continued to punish the opponents with Bundee Aki and Sexton grabbing two converted tries for a 33-8 lead at half time.
Romania had no say in the remaining half as Ireland kept their dominance strong with additional tries from Rob Herring, Joe McCarthy, Sexton, Aki, Beirne and Peter O’Mahony bagging their second and Sexton added the conversions to seal the win.
Ireland will take on Tonga at 7am on Saturday while Romania faces defending champions South Africa at 1 am on 18 of this month.
