A James Lowe try after just 93 seconds set the tone for the Ireland v Scotland game in the 2023 Rugby World Cup, as play unfolded he was joined by Hugo Keenan, Dan Sheehan, Iain Henderson, and Garry Ringrose on the list of try scorers, while Johnny Sexton added his share of conversions.
This means Ireland are comfortably through to the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup after a 36-14 hammering of Scotland at the Stade de France in Paris.
It is Ireland's second win in a row at the Stade de France, following their titanic battle with South Africa two weeks ago.
Ireland did little to show their well earned delight after that win and followed it up with a lap around the pitch to thank the travelling support.
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Johnny Sexton And Andy Farrell Have Their Say On Ireland World Cup Celebrations
There was criticism in some quarters - English pundit Stuart Barnes for example - for these celebrations, given that it was a pool match, leading Ireland captain Johnny Sexton to make a cheeky quip after tonight's game.
"I think we're given the trust by the management to go and enjoy ourselves on our time off, so that when we comeback to work we're refreshed and we're excited to come back to work," said Sexton in his post-match interview.
Sometimes we live on the edge there, we might go a bit too far, I think we got criticised for celebrating after the South Africa game.
But we're allowed, the fans trust us. We turn up to train hard, we prepare well, and we got the result that we needed tonight.
"It's incredible. They just keep turning up for us and it's important we keep turning up for them. They give us the best days of our lives and we give them something similar."
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Johnny Sexton's message to the Irish fans tonight. 💚#IREvSCO | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/6SAeP3fwBk
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) October 7, 2023
"That's living isn't it? That's where you want to be. If you can't get excited about that, you might as well not turn up."
Fantastic post-match interview from Andy Farrell with @TommyMartinVM. ☘️#IREvSCO | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/VLqUuY6M0h
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) October 7, 2023
Ireland v New Zealand - Farrell comments on monstrous quarter-final clash
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Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was asked about Ireland's quarter-final meeting with the All Blacks next week, and like his captain, he also hit back at the 'celebration police'.
"Well it's what dreams are made of. As far as a quarter-final is concerned it doesn't get any tougher, the respect we have got for New Zealand is through the roof and hopefully they have got a bit of respect for us.
"We will dust ourselves off first of all and recover properly from this one. But I would say that a couple of weeks ago we got some stick from walking around and thanking our fans, when they turn out in their thousands like this it is the least we can do."
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