Teams are rewarded for being ambitious but we're not doing anything too crazy

IRELAND'S FOCUS ON ATTACK AS LOWE HOPES TO BREAK TRY DUCK

- MICHAEL SCULLY

JAMES LOWE insists Ireland are primed to play ambitious attacking rugby in their bid to succeed on the world stage. 

Last season’s Grand Slam winners want to be great entertainers at this World Cup and, after a slow start out of the blocks last Saturday, turned on the style in the second half as they blew away Romania.

One of the biggest surprises of what was a record Ireland victory at a finals was that Lowe was not among the eight try scorers who between them racked up a dozen five-pointers in Bordeaux.

“It was bloody annoying because the boys inside me kept scoring,” smiled the winger, whose strike rate is 10 tries in 22 Test appearances.

“We managed to rack up a fair few tries and we know come the end of this round robin that could prove quite well.”

The victory was Ireland’s 14th in a row, extending their current record.

But Joe Schmidt’s game plan was figured out and all too easily dismantled four years ago in Japan after it had got Ireland to the top of the rankings.