A Comfortable Conquest Of Romania

In front of a record-breaking World Cup crowd of 89,267, deep in the enemy territory of England, Ireland eventually ensured back-to-back wins with a bonus point in each. The victims this time were Romania who sadly are a shadow of the fine team that were more than competitive in the early 'eighties. They were underdogs at Wembley, and true to form, the underdogs gradually succumbed to the onslaught from the favourites. Having said that, the Irish didn't cruise to the four tries milestone as quickly as they had done eight days before against Canada.

Instead, it took a sin-binning of an opponent to enable the Oirish to exploit their one-man advantage and score two further tries during those crucial ten minutes. In the end, both wings could look back fondly on a double helping of touchdowns. Tommy Bowe looked sharper, while Keith Earls has now joined Brian O'Driscoll as Ireland's joint-highest try scorer in World Cups - no mean feat. Earls may well inch ahead into first place if he is fit enough and fast enough against Italy next Sunday. Meanwhile, Simon Zebo is proving to be more than a capable understudy for Rob Kearney at full back.

This was a decent win for a much-changed team, albeit against a team handicapped by a ludicrously small gap between matches. Next week of course, Italy represent a step up in quality from Canada and Romania, and consequently the Irish would do well to improve their performance level accordingly. However, with no major injuries to report, it is a case of so far, so good - something that cannot be said for arrogant England!

IRELAND 44 Romania 10; in London; Sunday the 27th of September 2015.

15 Zebo

14 Bowe [2 TRIES]

13 Payne

12 Cave

11 Earls [2 TRIES]

10 Madigan [2 Penalties; 4 Conversions]

9 Reddan

8 Heaslip (captain)

7 Henry [TRY]

6 Murphy

5 Toner

4 Ryan

3 White

2 Strauss

1 Healy

Used replacements: Kearney.R [TRY]; McGrath; Jackson; Cronin; Furlong; O'Brien; O'Connell; Murray