Ireland up and running with bonus point after impressive rout of Wales

It seems Wales may require more than the return of Gats to solve their problems. There were even thoughts – dreams maybe – of the underdogs snarling in their lair and putting one over Ireland, looking all sleek and shiny up there at the top of the world rankings. The closed roof of the kennel was as full to bursting as ever with the songs of its faithful.

But that sheen of the Irish looks to run ever more deeper than the surface. They were in a different class, and open their campaign with a comfy bonus-point win away from home. If anything, they will wonder why they won by only the 24 points, given they were up by the same amount by half-time.

This may be the era of the comeback, but there was to be no such drama. Wales responded to the flatness of their first half with a bit more bite at the start of the second, Liam Williams, one of their better players, scoring a fine try to pull the score back to 27-10 a few minutes after the break. Which is all well and good, but when you are already three tries down it means only so much. Ireland comfortably saw out the rest of the match – and scored a fourth try through Josh van der Flier to claim that bonus point with ease, as if they had decided they probably should.

They may have lost three key players in the week, one of them, Jamison Gibson-Park, on the day itself, but that class of theirs is so integral now that disruption does not seem to bother them. None of their three tries in the first half will necessarily feature in a highlights reel, but the first two were the end product of approach work that was so dominant and confident there never seemed any danger of them losing. Caelan Doris and James Ryan finished them to open up a 14-0 lead within 10 minutes. When James Lowe