Irish win puts rivals on notice

11.45pm - By JULIAN LINDEN

IRELAND 45 ROMANIA 17

GOSFORD - Ireland grabbed maximum points in their opening World Cup pool A match this evening with a 45-17 win over Romania.

Ireland's record international try scorer Denis Hickie crossed for two tries while Shane Horgan, captain Keith Wood and Victor Costello grabbed one each. First five-eighths David Humphreys kicked 18 points to help put the Irish on top of their group.

The Romanians' points all came in the second half. They were awarded a penalty try shortly after the re-start and centre Valentin Maftei scored just before the final whistle.

First five-eighths Ionut Tofan booted a conversion and a penalty while replacement Iulian Andrei also landed a conversion.

The eastern Europeans were given little hope of upsetting the Irish, who had beaten them on each of their previous six meetings, but still put up a spirited display, running the ball at almost every opportunity.

However, Ireland were always in control of the match, dominating field position with their superior kicking and winning the bulk of the set-pieces.

Aided by a stiff breeze, the Irish raced to a 26-0 lead by halftime with Horgan and Wood scoring tries then added a further three touchdowns in the second term.

Humphreys booted three early penalties to give the Irish a 9-0 lead within the first 20 minutes before the backs started to cut loose.


SPECTACULAR

Horgan finished off a spectacular 50 metre movement to score the first try after combining with Girvan Dempsey and inside centre Kevin Maggs then Wood brought the crowd to their feet with his try.

The Irish hooker, who scored four tries against the United States in the last World Cup, burst on to a short pass from halfback Peter Stringer and ran around to score under the posts to become his country's leading tryscorer in World Cups.

Romania came desperately close to scoring on the stroke of halftime when they mounted a series of rolling mauls on the Irish line but failed to get the ball down.

However, they were rewarded with a penalty try shortly after the re-start when Humphreys pushed Gabriel Brezoinanu in the back when the winger was about to score.

The Romanians should have scored again minutes later when they regathered the ball after an attempted drop goal from Tofan struck the upright, but Cristian Sauan elected to go for the line himself when Brezoinanu was unmarked outside him and was tackled just short.

Ireland responded immediately with Hickie's first try after the winger finished off a break by Dempsey then Costello forced his way over in the 56th minute to secure a bonus point for his team.

Hickie crossed for his second three minutes from the end after bursting through some feeble defence before Maftei grabbed a consolation try from Romania right at the end.

"We scored tries and got our bonus point, so we can't complain," said Wood. "I'm happy enough with an awful lot of it but some aspects were not great.

Coach Eddie O'Sullivan added: "They put us under a lot of pressure, that was probably as good a defensive performance as we've had for a long time."

Teams:

Ireland - 15-Girvan Dempsey; 14-Shane Horgan, 13-Brian O'Driscoll (22-John Kelly 77), 12-Kevin Maggs, 11-Denis Hickie; 10-David Humphreys (21-Ronan O'Gara 66), 9-Peter Stringer (20-Guy Easterby 69); 8-Anthony Foley (19-Alan Quinlan 54), 7-Keith Gleeson, 6-Victor Costello, 5-Paul O'Connell, 4-Malcolm O'Kelly; 3-Reggie Corrigan, 2-Keith Wood (captain) (16-Shane Byrne 61), 1-Marcus Horan (17-John Hayes 54).

Romania - 15-Danut Dumbrava (22-Marius Niculai 61); 14-Cristian Sauan (21-Ioan Teodorescu 54), 13-Valentin Maftei, 12-Romeo Gontineac (captain), 11-Gabriel Brezoianu; 10-Ionut Tofan, 9-Lucian Sirbu (20-Mihai Vioreanu 73); 8-Cristian Petre (19-Iulian Andrei 40), 7-Ovidiu Tonita, 6-George Chiriac (18-Marian Tudori 66), 5-Augustin Petrichei, 4-Sorin Socol, 3-Marcel Socaciu (Petrisor Toderasc 40), 2-Razvan Mavrodin, 1-Petru Balan (17-Cezar Popescu 54)

Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)


- REUTERS

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