Ireland, South Africa cruise to Women’s Rugby World Cup wins

Ireland eased to a 42-14 victory over Japan to get their Women’s Rugby World Cup campaign off to an excellent start on Sunday, while South Africa claimed a 66-6 win against debutants Brazil thanks to a hat-trick of tries by No. 8 Aseza Hele in Northampton.

Japan proved popular with supporters at Franklin's Gardens as they bowed to all four corners of the ground when they left the pitch, but were undone by the power and speed of the Irish.

A strong first half gave Ireland their comfortable six try victory in their Group C encounter in which they had six different try-scorers and led 28-7 at the break.

Amee Leigh Costigan and Neve Jones settled whatever nerves there might have been with tries in the opening 10 minutes.

Ireland had their bonus point in the bag before halftime thanks to further scores from Beibhinn Parsons and Fiona Tuite, and added two more in the second period through Eve Higgins and Enya Breen. Dannah O'Brien converted all six tries.

Haruka Hirotsu and Masami Kawamura crossed for scores for Japan.

New Zealand take on Spain in a second Group C fixture at the York Community Stadium later on Sunday.

Hele’s hat-trick underpinned South Africa’s 10-try Group D win over Brazil, who are the lowest ranked side in the competition at number 25 in the world.

The latter are the first South American side to feature at the tournament.

Libbie Janse van Rensburg and flying winger Ayanda Malinga bagged two tries each, with Nadine Roos, Aphiwe Ngwevu and Lerato Makua also crossing for scores. Byrhandre Dolf kicked eight conversions.

Brazil had to defend for much of the contest but managed a pair of penalties from Raquel Kochhann as South Africa claimed a first victory at the Women's Rugby World Cup since 2010.