Ireland justified their status as the world No.1 ranked side with a brilliant bonus-point win over a physical, if disjointed Tonga side.
Driven on by fly-half Johnny Sexton, Andy Farrell's team did a lot of the hard work during a the first 40 minutes, scoring four tries to build up a 31-13-point lead. The pick of the first half scores was a free-flowing team move finished off by Sexton himself, enough to take the 38-year-old past Ronan O'Gara as Ireland's all-time record point scorer.
A number of substitutions, combined with some strong defensive work from the star-studded Tonga side, slowed Ireland's progress after the break. But tries from winger James Lowe, a second from standout Bundee Aki and a final-minute score from Rob Herring took the Irish beyond the 50-point mark, underlying their status as one of the tournament favourites.
"It’s not about personal achievements for us, it’s about winning the next game and ... it’s a massive game for us against the reigning world champions," Sexton said. "It’s all geared towards that now."
"The breakdown was a bit of a mess. Once we got to grips with that part of the game, we scored some good tries. When it's humid like this tonight the ball can be very greasy. It’s good to get the five points and move on."
Tonga head coach Toutai Kefu was honest in his appraisal: "Honestly [Ireland were] too good for us. Hopefully we'll be able to throw more punches next week."
"Ireland are the best in the world for a reason," losing captain Ben Tameifuna said. "We have a lot of boys that have had their first game tonight at a World Cup and it's an eye-opener to what it takes to be at this level."
