Ireland crossed over four times inside 17 first-half minutes to build up a convincing 29-0 lead over Canada at the Millennium Stadium.

Canada, who have never picked up a victory in six previous meetings against their opponents, had the chance to open up the scoring only for Gordon McRorie to kick his long-range pen wide.

A heavily-backed Ireland side struggled to find any real momentum inside the opening 15 minutes or so, yet Jonny Sexton finally opened his side's tournament account with a penalty of his own soon after.

It has been a determined effort from the Maple Leafs, though, having restricted the Six Nations champions to minimal openings in the early throes.

That soon changed when skipper Jamie Cudmore, making his 36th appearance this afternoon, was sent to the sin bin for the sixth time in his Test career with Ireland just metres from the try-line.

Then came a strong maul from Joe Schmidt's men, pushing the 1991 quarter-finalists further and further back before Sean O'Brien was given the task of simply touching down.

Sexton successfully split the sticks, taking Ireland into double figures and finally creating just a little breathing space following a rather reserved start.

Iain Henderson made light work of the Canucks by himself charging over from close range, before it was left to Sexton to cross over, finding a big gap in the Canada defence on the back of a fine sweeping move, which takes him past the 500-point mark for his country.

There were to be no extras scored on this occasion, but the Irish - backed by a vocal following in South Wales - did not have to wait much longer for try number four as Dave Kearney sold a dummy and burst into some space to touch down.

Sexton found the target from the follow-up, but there looked to be some hope for Canada when wing DTH Van Der Merwe thought he had pulled a try back, only for the TMO to rule that the ball had been passed forward in the closing stages.