Ireland make it two wins from two

dublin — Ireland crushed Italy 56-19 on Saturday to make it two Six Nations wins out of two, running in eight tries to secure their first bonus point of the championship.

After Johnny Sexton’s lastgasp drop goal rescued a win in Paris a week ago, Joe Schmidt’s side could not have asked for an easier afternoon but the eighttry victory could have come at a cost through the loss of prop Tadhg Furlong and centre Robbie Henshaw to injury.

“After getting out of jail last week we were looking forward to coming home and putting on a show. We’ll be disappointed with the 19 points we conceded but that’ll kick start our campaign. It’s exactly where we want to be,” scrumhalf Conor Murray said in a pitchside interview.

Ireland, who ran in nine tries against Italy in each of their last two meetings, looked to keep ball in hand throughout and despite a couple of early handling errors, they were three tries to the good after just 20 minutes

Henshaw and centre partner Bundee Aki grabbed the first and third from close range following intense forward pressure while Murray got the pick in between, finishing off a slick touchline move neatly assisted by Six Nations debutant Jack Conan.

Italy, coached by former Ireland fullback Conor O’Shea, also tried to run what little ball they had but, starved of opportunity, they never came close to hurting Ireland early on. —