Ireland 83 United States 3

Center Mike Mullins scored a hattrick of tries as Ireland swamped the United States 83-3 in the second match of their American tour here Saturday.

Halfback Guy Easterby added two tries in his first international for the Irish.  His brother Simon Easterby and Geordan Murphy also had two tries as Ireland posted a national record 13 tries.

Consistently splitting the US defense, hard-running Mullins crossed the American line once in the first half and twice in the second.  The Young Munster center was named man of the match for his efforts.

"It was good to get a big win after last week's disappointment against Argentina," Mullins said.  "The forwards played very well today."

US coach Duncan Hall tried to offer his players some encouragement in the wake of the disaster, which was played out before a ground record crowd of 5,200 Manchester's Singer Park.

"I told the team Ireland payed us a compliment by continuing to play rugby after building a big lead," said Hall, the former Australian international who signed a two-year contract to guide the US in February.  "We'll have to get some rest and then pull back together quickly before we go down to play the Island teams."

Ireland rolled to a 31-3 halftime lead, scoring five tries to Grant Wells' lone penalty goal for the hosts.

Simon Easterby scored just minutes into the game for Ireland, but Wells countered with a three-pointer before fullback Geordan Murphy and Mullins opened the floodgates with converted tries at 17 and 19 minutes, making the count 19-3.

Again scoring in rapid succession, Guy Easterby and Malcolm O'Kelly scored at 28 and 31 minutes, respectively, as the backpedaling American defense was consistently outnumbered.  In a typical sequence, the US looked to have stopped Ireland several times on Easterby's score, only for supporting Irish players to continue the downfield run.

Unlike last week's 34-25 comeback win over Canada, when the US racked up 27 points in the second half, this week's contest grew more one-sided over the second 40 minutes.  Mullins sandwiched tries at 42 and 48 minutes around a Paul Wallace score, all three converted by Ronan O'Gara to make the count 52-3.  Ireland's goalkicker finished with 12 points, connecting on six of 11 attempts.  Replacement David Humphreys converted one of two attempts.

Ireland scored five more tries down the stretch, while the US twice failed to convert strong scoring opportunities into points.

Ireland meet Canada next week in Toronto to complete their three-match tour, while the United States are idle until a July 1 Pacific Rim championship match against Fiji.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Paul Wallace, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 Justin Fitzpatrick, 4 Jeremy Davidson, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Simon Easterby, 7 David Wallace, 8 Eric Miller, 9 Guy Easterby, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Tyrone Howe, 12 Rob Henderson, 13 Mike Mullins, 14 Jimmy Topping, 15 Geordan Murphy
Reserves:  Bob Casey, David Humphreys, Marcus Horan, Kevin Maggs, Frankie Sheahan, Andy Ward
Unused:  Peter Stringer

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Robbie Flynn, 3 John McBride, 4 Philippe Farner, 5 Matt Kane, 6 Kort Schubert, 7 Don Younger, 8 Dave Hodges (c), 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 Grant Wells, 11 Andre Blom, 12 Phillip Eloff, 13 Juan Grobler, 14 Malakai Delai, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves:  John Burke, Joe Clayton, Tom Kelleher, Kirk Khasigian, Link Wilfley
Unused:  Ryan Fried, John McGeachy

Referee:  Thomas c.

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  Easterby S.H. 2, Easterby G. 2, Humphreys D.G. 1, Mullins M.J.M. 3, O'Kelly M.E. 1, Topping J.A. 1, Wallace P.S. 1, Murphy G.E.A. 2
Conv:  Humphreys D.G. 1, O'Gara R. 8

United States
Pen K.:  Wells G. 1