Ireland produced an impressive display, running in eight tries to dispatch Italy 54-7 at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday.
The Grand Slam champions and the number two side in the world controlled the match from beginning to end and are building up momentum at just the right time ahead of that crucial clash with the All Blacks on November 17.
Ireland got off to the best possible start when good work at close quarters from Tadhg Beirne, aided by good support from Jack McGrath and Niall Scannell, got the former over for his first international try. Joey Carbery converted for a fourth-minute 7-0 lead.
Joe Schmidt's men had their second on the half-hour mark. Following an aerial take by Andrew Conway, Ireland retained the ball well before Jordan Larmour stepped off his left, cut in between two forwards and darted into the 22 before laying off for the supporting Luke McGrath to touch down to the left of the posts.
However, Ireland's lead would be halved just before half-time through Italy's captain for the day Michele Campagnaro, wearing the armband in the place of the injured Sergio Parisse. Campagnaro intercepted Rhys Ruddock's pass to dot down for the intercept try two minutes before the interval.
Two minutes after the half-time break, towering lock Beirne had his second after running on to a flat ball from Luke McGrath to break clean through the Azzurri defence and dot down.
Soon after, Larmour scored his first international try when he plucked a wayward Campagnaro pass out the air and run the rest of the way to dot down.
In the 57th minute, replacement hooker Sean Cronin went over at the back of a well-worked driving maul as Carbery maintained his one hundred percent record with a fifth successive conversion to make it 35-7 after 60 minutes.
Six minutes later, Larmour grabbed his brace by which time Ireland were beginning to run riot. Dave Kilcoyne got his legs pumping, getting over the gain-line, Bundee Aki charged into space off a Ross Byrne pass and he sent his centre partner Garry Ringrose over in the right corner.
The icing was on the cake when Larmour ran in for his hat-trick to well and truly put the nail in the coffin of the Azzurri.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Tries: Beirne 2, McGrath, Larmour 3, Cronin, Ringrose
Cons: Carbery 5, Byrne 2
For Italy:
Try: Campagnaro
Con: Canna
Ireland: 15 Jordan Larmour, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Rhys Ruddock (c), 5 Quinn Roux, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 Andrew Porter, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 John Cooney, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Will Addison
Italy: 15 Luca Sperandio, 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Michele Campagnaro (c), 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Giulio Bisegni, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Rento Giammarioli, 7 Bram Steyn, 6 Johan Meyer, 5 George Fabio Biagi, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Tiziano Pasquali, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Nicola Quaglio
Replacements: 16 Oliviero Fabiani, 17 Cherif Traore, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Marco Lazzaroni, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Jimmy Tuivatti, 22 Guglielmo Palazzani, 23 Ian McKinley
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France), Alexandre Ruiz (France)
Television match official: David Ardrey (USA)
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