Following Gabriel Rupanu’s early touchdown for Romania, Ireland responded with five tries to lead 33-8 at the break.

They added seven more goals in the second period to secure a convincing victory.

Johnny Sexton scored 24 points, including two tries, to become Ireland’s all-time leading World Cup scorer, surpassing Ronan O’Gara.

Sexton, who broke O’Gara’s Six Nations record earlier this year, is now only nine points short of O’Gara’s Ireland Test record of 1,083 points.

Due to injury and suspension, the 38-year-old has not featured since Ireland’s Grand Slam-clinching victory against England in March.

But he looked sharp on his comeback, guiding the world’s top-ranked team to a simple Pool B victory – their largest at a World Cup – in challenging circumstances at Stade de Bordeaux.

With their first assignment over, Ireland will face a tougher test against Tonga next Saturday before moving on to the even more difficult assignments of South Africa and Scotland.

Sexton shines as Ireland continues to dominate.
Ireland entered Saturday’s opening as one of the tournament favorites, having won every Test since leading the global rankings after defeating New Zealand last year.

After witnessing possible quarter-final opponents France, whom Ireland defeated in the Grand Slam final in March, send an alarming message against the All Blacks on Friday, Andy Farrell’s team scored a major win of their own, although against inferior competition.

But what became an easy triumph began with a glitch. Romania pounced on Sexton’s attempted chip through to Keith Earls within three minutes in, allowing Rupanu to score.

Ireland, on the other hand, were never going to panic, and with Sexton increasingly dominant, they stamped their influence on the game with touchdowns from Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugh Keenan, and Tadhg Beirne.

Romania’s cause was harmed when full-back Marius Simionescu was sin-binned before Bundee Aki scored and set up Sexton.

Sexton’s reaction after scoring would have worried Irish supporters, with the fly-half’s wrist caught by Jason Tomane’s knee as he was dotting down.

However, Sexton returned for the second half and scored his second try of the day before leaving to a standing ovation 25 minutes from time.

More to come.

Ireland’s starting lineup is as follows: Keenan; Earls, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe; Sexton (captain), Gibson-Park; Doris, O’Mahony, Beirne; Ryan, McCarthy; Furlong, Herring, Porter.

Kelleher, Loughman, O’Toole, Henderson, Van der Flier, Murray, Crowley, and Hansen are the replacements.

Simionescu, Onutu, Tangimana, Tomane, Manumua; Vaovasa, Rupanu; Chirica (captain), Neculau, Rosu; Iancu, Motoc; Gordas, Cojocaru, Hartig.

Bardasu, Savin, Gajion, Iftimiciuc, Ser, Conache, Boldor, and Gontineac are the replacements.