Ireland run riot against Kazakhstan to get new era off to flying start

IRELAND 109-0 KAZAKHSTAN

Ireland began life under Scott Bemand with a record 109-0 win over Kazakhstan in Dubai in the WXV3 series.

In what was a complete mismatch, Ireland ran in 17 tries over the 80 minutes.

Returning Sevens players Eve Higgins and Béibhinn Parsons scored four tries each, with Aoife Dalton dotting down twice.

Christy Haney, Méabh Deely, Linda Djougang, Molly Scuffil-McCabe, Grace Moore, Brittany Hogan and Sarah Delaney also scored tries against the hapless Kazakhs.

Dannah O'Brien and Nicole Fowley kicked six conversions each.

"What I really liked about our performance today was we stuck to our game plan," co-captain Sam Monaghan told RTÉ Sport.

"We went off script at times but then got back to stuff that we wanted to do in our game model and built momentum and score.

"I’m extremely proud [of the team]. What we’ve been through over the last six months, this is a turning point."

Ireland next play Colombia, who lost 67-13 to Fiji earlier, on Saturday week.

Ireland: Méabh Deely, Natasja Behan, Eve Higgins, Aoife Dalton, Béibhinn Parsons; Dannah O'Brien, Molly Scuffil-McCabe; Linda Djougang, Neve Jones, Christy Haney, Dorothy Wall, Sam Monaghan, Grace Moore, Edel McMahon, Brittany Hogan

Replacements: Sarah Delaney, Sadhbh McGrath, Megan Collis, Eimear Corri, Maeve Óg O'Leary, Aoibheann Reilly, Nicole Fowley, Leah Tarpey.