Keith Earls chooses a fine time to start firing on all cylinders

Tougher tests await for sure, but the sight of so many Irish players looking in prime nick was encouraging. It was particularly heartening to behold the injury-plagued Luke Fitzgerald dancing, holding his depth and distributing in midfield, and his kindred spirit Keith Earls haring down the wing. He still has wheels.

The 50-metre gallop along the touchline and left to right inside pass across his body to take out three Canadians and put Rob Kearney over for Ireland's sixth try was the assist of the day.

Still standing

He may be relatively small but he still togs out big. Moving into the second quarter the ball was worked wide to Earls, who bounced

Matt Evans

. The Cornish Pirates fullback may be one kilogram heavier but ended up on his back, with Earls still standing.

"Yeah, going back to my school days," he said with a contented smile afterwards. "I feel good, yeah. I feel good. An unbelievable atmosphere again. I can imagine they all came down from London and the rest of Ireland and Britain. Yeah, it was great."

Ireland's leading try scorer at the last World Cup, Earls didn't play once for Ireland in the 2013/'14 or 14/'15 seasons despite initially being called in to virtually every Joe Schmidt squad. Earls bridged a gap of two years and five months when starting the first warm-up match at this venue six weeks ago. It's been a long, often lonely road back, making Saturday something of a benchmark day for Earls.

“I’m over the moon. I am very emotional. I spent the last two years watching the lads lifting trophies and stuff – not saying I would have been picked or not – but it was something I wanted to be a part of. You could see the camaraderie with the boys when they were playing for Ireland and yeah, I’ve worked hard. I’ve sacrificed a lot, and my fiancée and my kids will tell you that,” admitted Earls with a grin.

“So this was a main goal of mine that I wrote down at the summer, to get onto the plane with them, to get into the match-day 23 and I’m delighted to have achieved both of them but, as I said, I’ll keep the head down and keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully we’ll get more success.”

Earls was one of those who experienced Ireland's ever-expanding support in New Zealand and was again blown away by the scale of Saturday's invasion.

“It’s unbelievable. I think it’s not just rugby but anything Ireland go into, there’s an unbelievable support. You see it recently with the UFC boys. It’s something as a team we’re really proud of, and coming to the ground today and seeing a sea of green you can’t help but get a small bit emotional about it. It was like arriving in Aviva Stadium. As the foreigners call it, the crazy Irish.”

His day was also notable for the attendance of his mum, Sandra, and sister, Jenny, at their first away game. “Yea, my parents are over with my sister. My mother doesn’t really fly much so it was great to get her over – her first away game. My sister is only eight years of age so I’m sure she enjoyed. It was her first game away as well.”

Sun shining

“My mum doesn’t really like flying but as it was only an hour away she was happy to come over. And my fiancée and my kids are coming out in two weeks’ time, so I’m looking forward to seeing them.”

The closed roof, despite the sun shining gloriously, appeared to suit the greater width in Ireland’s game and thus Earls himself, although the player himself said conditions were not actually ideal.

“To be honest with you, it was kind of tough enough conditions. They watered the field before it and it was a bit humid inside and the ball was a small bit greasy. I thought we executed a couple of things well and we were happy with things we worked on during the week and a couple paid off.”

Ireland also left a few tries, and in Earls one bum note came when possibly butchering a well-worked overlap as first receiver when his mind was already on the pass before he received the ball from Conor Murray.

“Yeah exactly, because a lot of teams like to get off the line in their 22 and I wasn’t ball focussed. I was wondering when I get hit I just wanted to shift the ball quick. We’ll learn from a couple of things as well. We left a few out there.”

“It’s unusual for Ireland in the last few years coming off the back of two defeats in a row. The first game in a World Cup is kind of tricky for fellas to find their feet.

"You see England last night, it took them a while, and South Africa with Japan now at the moment. But as long as we look after ourselves, we know that in World Cups all teams are going to bring passion and are delighted to be playing for their country. So we just have to look after ourselves and we did manage that."

Mike Ross echoed Earls's sense of satisfaction that Ireland's tournament is finally underway. "It's great to get going. For a lot of players it is the pinnacle of their careers so to be playing in a World Cup is a huge honour, something where there is genuinely a huge excitement around the place. The support that was there was fantastic, it was like being in Dublin."

One strength

It will be interesting to see what kind of workload is asked of the frontrowers, for you’d imagine there will be some rotation there, but then again, as Ross noted, the one strength

Romania

will bring is a scrum.

The props Mihai Lazar and Horatiu Pungea play in France’s Top 14, for Castres and Oyonnax respectively.

“It’s going to be a big day for the forwards because just from watching the past couple of months their scrum has been going very well and it’s something they have always prided themselves on.

“They have a good pack, a lot of players in the French leagues. Whatever side they put out they are going to be a tough battle up front.