Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt believes Ireland's bonus-point win against Scotland in the Rugby World Cup opener in Yokohama "could be important in the Pool later on".
His side ran in four tries from Andrew Conway, Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, and Rory Best, with Ireland sitting on top of Pool A, joined on points by the hosts Japan.
It ended in Yokohama with Ireland winning by 24 points, on a final score of 27-3.
FULL TIME SCORE: IRELAND 27-3 SCOTLAND #TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder #IREvSCO pic.twitter.com/H40EJ3cfIn
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) September 22, 2019
"I was delighted with the first half," said Schmidt. "We really put some pressure on. We had to soak a bit up too. We put together about 15 line breaks.
"The one frustration is we didn't finish on the back of enough of those, but in these conditions, in the second half, I was delighted to see Andrew Conway get over in the corner. It just gave us the buffer and the bonus point, which could be important in the pool later on.
"I've got massive respect for Gregor and Scotland - they will be very hard to bowl later in the tournament. Maybe we got them just early enough in the tournament that they hadn't quite hit their straps."
CJ Stander was made man of the match for his performance against Scotland, he said, "We put a lot of effort into it over the preseason and we trained well but it is just the start.
"So we're looking forward to the next game, we can't look back on this too much because we're playing again in six days. We're looking forward to the support again and I'm looking forward to enjoying Japan."
Meanwhile, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend was disappointed, "when you go behind against a team like Ireland, who are very good at staying in front, then it's always going to be difficult and it was obviously very difficult in the second half with the rain.
"Really it was that first 20 minutes: we didn't set the tone with our energy and Ireland took their chances and the game was very difficult to come back from there."
