Rugby World Cup: Ireland crushes Canada in opener

Ireland dismissed concerns about its readiness for the Rugby World Cup by overwhelming Canada in a 50-7 win on Saturday, clinching the four-try bonus point inside 36 minutes.

The Six Nations champions scored seven tries in total under the Millennium Stadium roof, the first three coming in a 10-minute spell midway through the first half when Canada hardman Jamie Cudmore was in the sin-bin.

Jonathan Sexton ran the show from flyhalf, crossing once and kicking nine points to inspire Ireland to a 29-0 halftime lead. Sean O'Brien, Iain Henderson and Dave Kearney were the other first-half try-scorers.

Sean Cronin, Rob Kearney, and Jared Payne all dotted down in the final 16 minutes for Ireland, which had a troublesome buildup involving consecutive losses to Wales and England in the warm-ups.

Some were questioning whether the Irish had peaked too early after back-to-back Six Nations titles. Perhaps they were simply keeping something back for the World Cup.

Canada didn't put up the sternest of tests — its sole try came from DTH Van Der Merwe following an interception on halfway in the 68th — but the way Sexton controlled matters and how well the forwards did the basics bodes very well for Ireland.

The bonus point was nailed before halftime as the Canadians paid for the yellow card to Cudmore. The uncompromising lock is known for throwing a few punches but this sin-binning was down to pure cynicism, playing the ball with his hands at the base of a ruck on Canada's line. It proved costly.

He had barely reached the benches when O'Brien barged over at the base of a rolling maul from an attacking lineout. More bludgeoning paid off when Henderson drove through centre Nick Blevins to reach over and ground in the 25th after a series of phases.

As Cudmore was limbering up to return, Sexton sprayed a pass out wide to O'Brien, received an inside ball, and sprinted 40 metres to score in the left corner. Against 14 men, Ireland moved from 3-0 to 22-0.

Kearney capped an impressive first half for the Irish by running onto Luke Fitzgerald's pass on an inside line and drift around his opposite wing for glide over.

It was already mission accomplished by halftime, and after weathering some pressure soon after the restart, Ireland emptied the bench — giving key players such as Sexton a rest — and saw its replacements bring new energy.

One of them, Cronin, crashed over after multiple phases, Rob Kearney finished off a searing break down the left from Keith Earls, and Payne's try under the crossbar brought up the half-century.

Ireland leaked its try after Van Der Merwe blocked Payne's kick-through and sprinted from just inside his own half. But coach Joe Schmidt will be satisfied with this run-out, especially with his team avoiding an injuries.

Georgia defeats Tongo 

Georgia has won for only the third time at its fourth Rugby World Cup, taking down Tonga 17-10 in a match which lived up to predictions of brutal attrition.

The Georgians pushed their 10-3 halftime lead out to 17-3 in the third quarter when flanker Giorgi Tkhilaishvili began and finished a counterattack from his own half.

But with eight minutes to go, Tonga finally breached Georgia's defence, with winger Fetu'u Vainikolo on an overlap scoring his 15th try and taking sole possession of Tonga's try-scoring record.

Georgia contained the rest of Tonga's desperate attempts to score again, and grabbed an edge in the race to finish third in Pool C to secure an automatic qualifying spot at the 2019 tournament in Japan.