Ireland's opening World Cup victory leaves Joe Schmidt a satisfied man

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was pleased with the manner in which his side managed the game as they defeated Canada 50-7 in Cardiff.

The Six Nations champions dominated the set piece, looked slick and creative in the backline and ran in seven tries in their World Cup Pool D opener under the closed roof at the Millennium Stadium.

"I think we showed a fair bit of respect for Canada and they demonstrated why they deserved that respect," said Schmidt.

"For us to build our way into the game and successfully put phases together effectively to build scoreboard pressure on them was satisfying."

Schmidt was also impressed with the way in which utility back Luke Fitzgerald played after replacing the injured Robbie Henshaw at inside centre.

"I thought Luke did really well at 12, his distribution to give Dave Kearney space for his try was great," Schmidt added.

"Defensively he was sound and his ball-carrying is a strength. He punched a half-gap off a scrum and that put them under pressure straight away.

"He stays alive really well in the defensive line, he's got good alertness, communicates really well and slotted in well.

"Darren Cave plays 12 or 13 and that's a real advantage for us. But we always intended giving Luke a chance at 12, because he's played 13 and 11 in the build-up, and we wanted to build our versatility.

"Darren's pretty likely to have an involvement next week, and that will allow us to mix and match a little bit as we have done through the build-up period.

"But at the same time we know we've got to get results and we've got to go after them right from the start.

"We need to have people that we can put out there who can do the job, and we have confidence in our full squad of 31.

"With Luke, Keith Earls, with Darren Cave and Robbie, and Jared Payne and then also Ian Madigan at 12, there is a bit of scope for flexibility and an ability to maybe change up the way we're playing the game depending on who we're using."

Canada coach Kieran Crowley believes Ireland now have a genuine shot at winning a first World Cup.

"Ireland weren't number two in the world a couple of weeks back for nothing and they got on their horse and scored a few tries," he said.

"They have a pretty rounded game and when you get to quarters, semis, and then finals, it's just one-off games."