Ireland hammer Scotland to set up Rugby World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand

Ireland's Rugby World Cup journey continues, and it never looked in any doubt.

Andy Farrell’s side completed a clean sweep of Pool B with an emphatic 36-14 win against Scotland at a roaring Stade de France, setting up a quarter-final rematch and a chance at revenge against the All Blacks next week.

From the moment James Lowe ran in to score Ireland's opening try with barely 60 seconds on the clock, a 17th win in a row for the Six Nations champions felt inevitable.

Ireland’s World Cup campaign won’t be defined by this win, but what it has done is further reinforce the fact that the gap between the game’s top four and the rest is more like a canyon.

If one image could sum up this night, it was the sight of Peter O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne, Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong all strolling off the pitch on 47 minutes with their evening’s work complete.

By that stage it was 31-0 and Johnny Sexton was on the bench waiting for them. The fact that Ireland could have their frontliners wrapped up in cotton wool with the second half just a few minutes old would was a true flex.

For a brief spell in the opening half Scotland did what they came to do and were disrupting Ireland.

With the score at 5-0 and Ireland conceding multiple penalties, Scotland went several times into the corner and came up with nothing. For almost 20 phases they went back and forth across the pitch as Ireland’s defence bullied them.

The roar that greeted the turnover Ireland won felt like a turning point even with just 14 minutes played, and once they started getting their hands on the ball they looked by far the better team.

Iain Henderson had been chosen over James Ryan in the second row, and he repaid his coach’s faith with a brilliant display, showing deft touches on the