Ireland have hardly hit a discordant note after blistering 20-try start to the Rugby World Cup… but with a bulkier, green and gold prospect looming in the distance, a different tune will be needed in Paris

• Ireland have seen off their first two opponents with little trouble so far in France
• Ross Byrne will be vying to be named as fly half cover against South Africa
• Rugby World Cup 2023: Click here for Mail Sport’s latest coverage from France 
• Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results

Midnight had arrived before the Irish players did.

It was still warm in Nantes by that time on Saturday night. The match had finished shortly after 11pm, and head coaches and captains were obliged to do their press duties before other players were shuttled through an area called the mixed zone.

It’s an interview area set up between the dressing room and the team bus, with a certain number of players obliged to stop and talk.

On nights that have ended in defeat, this can be a grim business, with lots of heads kept down and eye contact avoided.

It was a more pleasant business as Saturday gave way to Sunday.

Ireland smashed Tonga with eight tries to continue their blistering start to the Rugby World Cup, with Andy Farrell’s side having scored 20 tries in two games so far

Andy Farrell once again made the decision to go with a full-strength line-up rather than rest his key stars

Outside, a few dozen Irish fans lingered around the team bus, waiting to hail their heroes.

Inside, those players had their focus split between a second rout in a week – 20 tries in two games is a dazzling haul, no matter who the opponents – and the bulky mass growing larger on the horizon.

Once Andy Farrell made the decision to go again with a strong selection for the Tonga game, the expectations around this game changed.

Instead of rotating his resources and trusting that an unfamiliar line-up could get a bonus-point victory, by choosing the side he did the demand was for further improvement on Romania.

And it came. Two weeks in, this has been a roaring start to Ireland’s World Cup campaign.

‘We knew ourselves we needed to step it up a gear this week,’ said Robbie Henshaw. ‘It was going to be a tougher opposition, bigger men and harder-hitting men.

‘It was a stop-start kind of game but great to come through it with the amount of points we scored, and we’re happy with how we came through.

‘There were patches in the first half when we weren’t at our best but we kind of got together and fixed it throughout the game.’

Robbie Henshaw sat out the demolition of Romania with a hamstring issue but returned to the bench against Tonga

Henshaw came into the game for Garry Ringrose after 50 minutes. His half-hour of exposure came with the outcome already decided and attention already being tugged towards the Springboks in Paris.

No matter how well he acquitted himself, Henshaw was coming into an area where selection looks settled.

Bundee Aki was, for the second game in a row, the outstanding player on the pitch. Beside him, Ringrose exerted a subtle but profound influence in defence and attack, as he usually does. What chance Henshaw had of giving Farrell a selection poser probably passed in Bordeaux in week one. He was named on the bench for that one, but withdrew the day before with discomfort in his hamstring.

‘Hamstrings aren’t straight-forward,’ he says of grumbles in that particular muscle.

‘So, I suppose with what was coming down the line it was probably the smart decision (to sit out the Romania match), although you never want to as a player.

‘You always want to be involved but with what was coming down the line, I decided not to risk it and thankfully it came good this week.’

Ross Byrne got a longer exposure, given the second half after the record-breaking Johnny Sexton was taken off at the break.

By then he had broken the Irish points record, left the Irish fans in raptures, prompted boos from mischievous locals, and generally brought an order and urgency to Ireland’s play that only he can.

Bundee Aki was once again the premier player on the pitch and could block Henshaw’s route to the first XV

Johnny Sexton overtook Ronan O’Gara’s all-time Ireland points record in the rout on Saturday

Byrne will be near the head of the queue to take his place when Sexton retires at the end of the tournament. He was first in line to slap the captain’s back when Sexton got over for his try, with Byrne among the Irish replacements warming up at that end of the pitch.

‘That’s the thing, he’s been doing it for so long,’ said Byrne, who as his long-time understudy at Leinster, and more recently with Ireland, understands Sexton’s durability in a way few others do.

‘The longevity he’s had has been incredibly impressive. Very few, if anyone else, who has done that. It is remarkable.’

No less than with Henshaw, Byrne was tasked with making an impression off the bench in an area of intense competition. Jack Crowley has, in plenty of analysis, passed Byrne out as Sexton’s most effective alternative among the replacements.

But Byrne kicked four conversions out of four off the tee, and was generally effective in a contest that became ragged as replacements flooded on.

Ross Byrne has been the understudy to Sexton at both Leinster and Ireland and is in line to replace him when he retires at the end of the tournament

South Africa lie in wait for Ireland – and the bulkier challenge will be a real test of Ireland’s World Cup credentials

He was outside the match-day squad in week one, he was solid in week two. Now it’s up to Farrell to decide on fly-half cover for the Springboks.

It could be a highly significant call, given a tight match is expected, and, unpalatable as it may be to consider, the fact that South Africa will go after Sexton ruthlessly.

‘Look, it’s a World Cup, that’s the way it goes, I just had to do the best I could in preparing the team for Romania,’ shrugged a man well used to answering questions about taking his chance when it comes. ‘We’ve a great squad here and everything is geared towards the team being successful.’

There hasn’t been a discordant note sounded so far. A very different tune is needed for the next performance, though.

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