Ireland made a fine start to their mid-year tour when they claimed a deserved 55-19 victory over the USA in New Jersey on Saturday.
As the scoreline suggests, Ireland dominated for large periods and they eventually outscored their hosts by nine tries to three with Keith Earls leading the way with a brace scored in the first half.
The visitors were in control from the outset and Earls' two tries and further five-pointers from Jacob Stockdale, Niall Scannon and Kieran Marmion helped their side to a 29-7 half-time lead, with the USA's points registered via a Nic Civetta try which AJ MacGinty converted.
Ireland showed their intent from the outset and they opened the scoring as early as the third minute when Earls went over for the opening try after combining with Tiernan O'Halloran, who tore the Eagles' defence to shreds with a superb line break in the build-up.
The USA had some good moments during the next 10 minutes with Marcel Brache and David Tameilau doing well with impressive carries but poor decision making meant those attacks were snuffed out by Ireland's defence.
In the 14th minute, Earls turned provider and after making a decisive break in midfield he floated out a long pas to debutant Stockdale, who outpaced the cover defence before diving over in the left-hand corner.
Shortly afterwards, O'Halloran breached the USA's defence with ease again before getting a pass out to Marmion, who did well to free his arms close to the USA's tryl-line, and Earls had an easy run-in for his second try.
Midway through the half, the USA opened their account when Civetta charged down a Joey Carbery chip kick inside Ireland's 22 before regathering the loose ball and diving over for his side's first try.
Ireland finished stronger though and further tries from Scannell and Marmion meant the visitors were cruising as the teams changed sides at the break.
Like the first half, Ireland were fastest out of the blocks after the interval when Jack Conan crossed for their sixth try in the 44th minute but shortly afterwards, the USA replied with their second try, scored in a remarkably similar fashion to their first.
This time it was John Quill who charged down a Carbery kick before pouncing on the loose ball and crossing the whitewash. And 10 minutes later, things got better for the hosts when Ryan Matyas crossed for their second try after selling O'Halloran a dummy deep inside Ireland's 22.
Ireland finished stronger though and they scored three tries during the final quarter. First, replacement James Ryan went over with his first touch of the game after the ball went through several pairs of hands in the build-up.
And further tries from Luke McGrath and Simon Zebo, in the game's closing stages, brought up a half century of points and sealed the result for the visitors.
The scorers:
For USA:
Tries: Civetta, Quill, Matyas
Cons: MacGinty 2
For Ireland:
Tries: Earls 2, Stockdale, N Scannell, Conan, James Ryan, McGrath, Zebo
Cons: Ringrose, Carbery 2, R Scannel 2
USA: 15 Ben Cima, 14 Mike Te'o, 13 Ryan Matyas, 12 Marcel Brache, 11 Martin Iosefo, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Nate Augspurger (c), 8 David Tameilau, 7 Tony Lamborn, 6 John Quill, 5 Nic Civetta, 4 Nate Brakeley, 3 Chris Baumann, 2 Peter Malcolm, 1 Ben Tarr
Replacements: 16 James Hilterbrand, 17 Joe Taufete'e, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 Matthew Jensen, 20 Andrew Durutalo, 21 Shaun Davies, 22 Will Magie, 23 Bryce Campbell
Ireland: 15 Tiernan O'Halloran, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Rhys Ruddock (c), 5 Devin Toner, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 James Ryan, 20 Dan Leavy, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Rory Scannell, 23 Simon Zebo
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant Referees: Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Chris Assmus (Canada)
TMO: Neil Paterson (Scotland)
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