Ireland turn on the style to hammer Fiji at the Aviva

It's been a while since Ireland had a stress-free game of rugby, but Andy Farrell’s side had just that at Aviva Stadium as they made light work of an ill-disciplined Fiji.

Ireland scored eight tries against the Pacific Islanders, as their attack clicked to produce some beautiful scores, with some of their younger players to the fore.

All eyes were on 21-year-old Sam Prendergast as he made his first start in an Ireland shirt, and while the Leinster 10 had a poor start, he grew into the game and produced some moments of real class.

A shoulder to the head of Fijian flanker Kitione Salawa saw the rookie out-half sin-binned just seven minutes into the game, and after surviving the bunker review, he looked nervous on his return, sending two kicks out on the full.

It wasn’t long until he warmed up though, and when he sent a beautiful crossfield kick into the hands of Mack Hansen to score Ireland’s fourth try right on half-time, his conversion made it 28-3, and he would score five of his seven conversion attempts for a personal tally of 10 points.

Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Craig Casey had scored Ireland’s earlier tries, with debutant hooker Gus McCarthy having a major hand in all three, while he also set up Bundee Aki to score just after the break.

The 21-year-old will have been frustrated to see two lineouts go crooked, but around the pitch he was wonderful in possession, and he capped off a dream debut with a try of his own on 64 minutes, touching down off the back of a maul – the first time Ireland have scored directly from a maul since Round 3 of the Six Nations.

Fiji got in for two second-half tries, but they were cancelled out by further scores from Hansen and Rónan Kelleher as Ireland brought up a half-century of