Ireland captain Johnny Sexton toasted a job well done after Ireland went top of the Guinness Six Nations with a seven-try win against Italy.
Winger Hugo Keenan crossed for two scores, while fellow debutant Will Connors secured the bonus point mid-way through the second period.
CJ Stander, Sexton, Bundee Aki and Dave Heffernan also crossed for the Men in Green, who know that a bonus-point win away to France next weekend will see them crowned champions.
“It was scrappy at times, as it always is when you haven’t played for six or seven months, so we knew it was going to be a bit like that but I’m proud of the effort of the lads it was outstanding,” Sexton said.
“Anytime you put 50 points on an international team you’ve done a lot of good. We did a couple of things that we’d want to take back, and obviously I’d like to take the intercept back, but these things happen and I’m proud of how we bounced back from the mistakes that we made.
“We got 33 points on the points difference so it might not be enough, maybe if we’d got another score or didn’t concede at the end we could’ve put some pressure on England against Italy.
“How many wins have we had in Paris over the years? Not too many, so we need to go and concentrate on our performance, there was a lot of good tonight, but there was a lot that we need to fix up and get right.
“We go to Paris with it all to do, but we’ve got a special group and a special coaching team, and if anyone we can do it, we can.”
Ireland were slow out of the blocks in Dublin and lost Conor Murray to the sin-bin in the third minute.
However, Stander burrowed his way over for a try shortly after Keenan added a pair of excellent scores before the break.
Connors’ touched down from the back of a driving maul, before Sexton crashed over, Aki strolled in and Heffernan finished it off.
“It’s a job well done in the end, we knew we wanted to go into next week with a performance that got us a bonus point, so we move onto next week,” said head coach Andy Farrell.
“I thought our defence in parts was outstanding. The energy, the ferocity, the line speed and the collision work, we generated our own energy through that.
“We got some good turnover ball off the back of it, we showed glimpses of things that we could do, it’s one game down and we’ve got one more to do in the Six Nations.
“We’re the only team that can guarantee a win. It’s a tall order going to Paris, but we’ll assess this to see how we can get better.”
