Ireland now boast the top spot in Pool D of this year’s Rugby World Cup after a dominated display against minnows Romania. The men in green scored 44 points against the Europeans whilst conceding a late try in the late stages of the match.
The match, which took place at Wembley Stadium, was played in front of a Rugby World Cup record crowd of 89,267.
Ireland will qualify for the quarter-finals if they beat Italy next week, however have never won the Rugby World Cup but have 19 wins from 30 appearances.
Joe Schmidt took many positives from his team’s victory, wingers Keith Earls and Tommy Bowe both got themselves two tries each. Rob Kearney and Chris Henry also scored Ireland.
Schmidt did concede a late try from Romanian second row Ovidiu Tonita to which he described as ‘disappointing’. Schmidt also said that he ‘would have liked to keep them try-less.’
The Ireland coach went on to say how it will be hard to pick a side when for they when they play the Azzuri next week. Schmidt said ‘I thought there was a number of players that did perform really well and will create a few selection headaches leading into Italy.’
The coach complimented performances from Darren Cave, Jared Payne and Simon Zebo.
Try-scorer Rob Kearney limped off but Schmidt described his injury as ‘hopeful’.
