Schmidt not fully satisfied with Ireland win

Ireland know that their meetings with Italy and France should decide Pool D, with a potential quarter-final against Argentina in the offing.

They face the unfancied Romanians and will be out to score plenty of tries and register a bonus-point victory.

TOMMY Bowe insists he can bounce back from his horror-show warm-up match against England and regain his starting Ireland spot at the World Cup.

Back on even terms, the game ended with forwards’ tries for Henry and Tonita, to eerily leave the scoreline similar to their two previous results in World Cups: 44-14 in 1999, and 45-17 in 2003.

Bowe is certain he have retained the ability to combine it with Dave Kearney, Earls and Simon Zebo to book certainly one of Ireland’s initiating branch berths continuing.

“Earls seems to have an incredible knack for scoring tries now – Ireland’s leading try scorer in the World Cup ever”.

But he gave credit to the Irish squad for doing what other highly-fancied teams have struggled to do so far in the tournament, win the easy games.

Wembley’s mexican wave produced such volume that Romania had to form a huddle in order to call their lineout, but they continued to frustrate with key turnovers deep in their own 22.

A concern for the Irish was an apparent ankle knock picked up by regular full-back Kearney, who had come on as a replacement, as he scrambled over for Ireland’s fifth try.

“Myself, Keith Earls (man of the match against Romania and fellow wing who also scored two tries) played exceptionally well, Simon Zebo played well and Rob Kearney looked full of energy when he came on”.

Ireland were clearly the better side, as Joe Schmidt now readies his men for a stiffer test against Italy this weekend. Three minutes in, Reddan attacked off the side of a maul and dinked a kick through for the quick-reacting Earls to dot down and score his seventh World Cup try – equalling Brian O’Driscoll’s Irish tournament record.

Reddan flung the ball out to Bowe, who brushed off Ionut Botezatu to roll into the corner, and moments later Zebo’s pop inside freed substitute Rob Kearney to crash through for try number five.

“This was planned and we knew he would do it. I congratulated him”, Romania captain Mihai Macovei told reporters.