No one connected with Ireland will be getting ahead of themselves. There is the small matter of a quarter-final against a revitalised New Zealand next weekend and plenty more ferociously hard yards still to cover. But this was yet another of those nights when the world’s No 1-ranked side more than justified their elevated status and looked every inch a team capable of going all the way.
Never before, certainly, have they reached the knockout stages of a Rugby World Cup at such a thoroughbred gallop. The All Blacks will ask more demanding questions than a totally outclassed Scotland but the green energy with which Ireland dominated the breakdown and sapped their opponents’ spirits was both impressive and, from a Kiwi perspective, rather ominous.
