Ireland 31-0 Scotland – Rugby World Cup LIVE: Rampant Irish score five tries as they tear apart Scots, who are on the brink of elimination

Testament to the Scots but they haven’t given up and find themselves in a promising position.

But once again they are repelled by a simply sublime Irish defence before a knock on halts the attack.

More frustration for Scotland. Ireland have made 140 tackles compared to their opponent’s 77 which sort of sums up this game.

And there’s the extra man counting.

Sheehan gets his revenge. Just brilliant play from the Irish and Scotland’s defence is once again not up to standard.

Ireland almost score in the right corner but play is quickly switched and Sheehan goes ends up going over on the left.

They are showing no signs of letting up.

Sexton misses the conversion and that will be his last action as he is withdrawn for Crowley, with the veteran receiving a huge cheer from the crowd.

Bit of a scuffle here after Sexton isn’t happy with something.

Schoeman then pushes Sheehan over the hoarding in a move that would be more accustomed to WWE as pretty much every player gets involved in some pushing and shoving.

It seems it all happened from Smith attempting to trip Sexton after play had been stopped which led to the discord.

Smith will go to the sin bin for his petulance but no one else will be punished.

And the second half has begun.

This is all about pride now for Scotland and they have to go again.

That is some half from Ireland.

After scoring an early try, they were forced to absorb Scottish pressure for a ten-minute period but their defence was more than up to the task.

Since then, it has been one-way traffic and the Irish have repeatedly cut open their beleagured opponents to score four tries in total.

It’s looking pretty bleak for Scotland’s hopes of staying in this tournament.

Ireland are rampant as Keenan goes over again.

They are some team and this is just total domination now.

Sexton misses two players with a sensational pass and Keenan beats off two men to go over.

Sexton converts again and this is becoming a hammering, with that the bonus point try for the Irish.

What a team Ireland are.

Brilliant movement from the Irish ball carriers has them on the verge of the line before Henderson goes over for a well-worked try.

Patient, accurate build-up and there really is no stopping this side.

Sexton converts again and his side are flying.

Exceptional from Ireland.

After that aformerntioned lull, Ireland turn it on in the blink of an eye and go over again.

They just raise the intensity and amazing hands completely cuts open the Scottish defence before Keenan goes over in the corner.

Sexton converts and it’s all looking rather bleak for Scotland with Kinghorn also off due to injury.

We;ve entered a bit of a lull in the game with both sides happy to search for territory by kicking long.

Ireland will be very satsified with this and also with how they keep winning Scotland’s line out too.

15 minutes until half-time and it’s still 5-0 to the Irish.

Huge chance for Ireland.

Whenever they get on the ball, they look so dangerous.

O’Mahony breaks through and offloads to Hansen just metres from the line but he knocks on and Scotland survive.

Such fine margins.

Meanwhile, Hansen is heading off for Scotland with an injury and he looks devastated.

It’s all Scotland here, but Ireland’s world-renowned defence is simply superb.

There’s no surprise they’ve got the meanest defece in this World Cup so far.

The Scots throw everything at their attack before they concede a penalty. So impressive from the Irish.

Scotland win a penalty about 40 metres out.

However, Russell chooses not to take the three points and kicks for the corner instead, before Ireland win the line out.

A bold call and no doubt motivated by the need for a large margin of victory tonight for the Scots.

The Scots have recovered well from that disastrous start to this game.

They have a spell of pressure deep in Ireland’s 22 but concede a penalty and Sexton clears the ball into touch.

WOW! What a start for Ireland!

They are so efficient in attack. Brilliant play and Ringrose breaks the line and plays it off to Hansen, who then passes it on to Lowe, before he goes over in the corner.

Just 64 seconds on the clock.

Sexton just misses his conversion from a tight angle but that is some start from the Irish and the worst possible one for Scotland.

Johnny Sexton gets proceedings underway.

A reminder Scotland have to win this to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

Ireland: Keenan; M Hansen, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe; Sexton (capt), Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong; Beirne, Henderson; O’Mahony, Van der Flier, Doris.

Replacements: Kelleher, Kilcoyne, Bealham, Ryan, Conan, Murray, Crowley, McCloskey.

Scotland: Kinghorn; Graham, Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe; Russell, Price; Schoeman, Turner, Fagerson, Gray, Gilchrist, Ritchie (capt), Darge, Dempsey.

Replacements: Ashman, Sutherland, Nel, Cummings, M Fagerson, Crosbie, Horne, Smith.

And the national anthems of both sides are now being sung.

What a huge night we have in store…

There is no surprise Ireland are favourites for the World Cup given they are currently on a 16-match winning streak.

This included a tense 13-8 victory over South Africa in the Pool stage last month after one of the best games of rugby you will ever see.

But Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn is not at all fazed by his opponents tonight.

Ahead of kick off, he said:

It’s win or go home. Everyone is pumped for it. They have been on a good run of form recently, but we’ll end that on Saturday.

We’re set for a packed house at the Stade de France tonight and both sets of supporters are already making their presence heard in the ground.

The last time these two sides met was in the Six Nations back in March.

Ireland emerged victorious by a scoreline of 22-7 in Edinburgh on that occasion.

It’s fair to say Pool B is probably the toughest group at the World Cup, with Ireland and South Africa being two of the favourites for the tournament, while Scotland have also enjoyed an impressive year.

But it all comes down to this clash. South Africa are currently top but have played a game more and who reaches the quarter-finals all comes down to this clash with the top three all still able to make it.

The permutations are as follows:

• Ireland will top Pool B if they avoid defeat or lose by seven points or fewer
• Scotland must win with a bonus point or win and deny Ireland a

losing bonus point

And welcome to Mail Sport’s live blog for Ireland’s huge clash with Scotland.

Kick off is just over 30 minutes away and we’re sure to be in for a fascinating game of rugby.