Rugby World Cup 2019: Ireland juggernaut batters Scotland in Yokohama drizzle

Forwards James Ryan, Rory Best and Tadhg Furlong all smashed over in the first 25 minutes and winger Andrew Conway secured the bonus point with the fourth try in the second half, with a single Greig Laidlaw penalty all Scotland had to show.

There was some concern that injury-prone flyhalf Johnny Sexton gave up kicking duties early on, and flanker Peter O’Mahony and centre Bundee Aki left early with head injuries, but coach Joe Schmidt said Sexton was fine and that the other two were symptom-free. Scotland also lost flanker Hamish Watson to a serious-looking injury.

“I was delighted with the first half, I think we really put some pressure on, defensively as well as in attack,” Schmidt said in a pitchside interview. “I think they (Scotland) are a team that will be very, very hard to bowl later in the tournament and maybe we just got them early enough that they hadn’t quite hit their straps.”

With the flat, unsuccessful defence of their 2018 Six Nations title still hanging over them, Ireland were desperate to get up and running quickly in Japan and did exactly that as the three early tries from their front five put them in total control.

Encouragingly for Schmidt, the first two came from clean line-out ball, putting to bed some of the concerns over his team’s set-piece as well as his much-debated call to leave go-to jumper and caller Devin Toner at home.