Sexton, 38, also surpassed John Hayes as Ireland’s oldest player at a World Cup and has moved to within nine points of Ronan O’Gara’s 1083 points as Ireland’s leading scorer in the tournament.

Yet while the head coach had to witness Romania take a shock 5-0 lead after just 130 seconds when Oaks scrum-half Gabriel Rupano finished an early counter-attack, he expressed his delight for both the large contingent of Ireland supporters in the 41,117 Bordeaux crowd as well as those watching on television at home.

“I think to get off to a good start is very important for us, because of the people not just who travelled today and are around Bordeaux having a great time, but for the Irish public in general,” Farrell said.

“They told me that 60,000 Irish homes have registered with World Rugby for tickets. You do the maths, whether it's two, three or four per household. The people coming from the UK, America, Europe... wow, what a journey this is going to be.

“I'm more pleased for them, that hopefully they've enjoyed themselves, and that the people coming in the next few weeks will enjoy it a bit more. Hopefully the journey has just started, and it's going to get a little bit better as well.” 

Jamison Gibson-Park had levelled the scores after just five minutes with Ireland’s opening try, followed by Hugo Keenan’s try after 12 minutes, both converted by Sexton. Tadhg Beirne grabbed the first of his double on 17 minutes, which was followed by the captain and fly-half’s only miss of the day from the tee.

Rapuno, who had missed his conversion opportunity, nailed his penalty on 21 minutes as Ireland stalled during most of the second quarter but Farrell’s team still managed to grab the try bonus point before the interval, Bundee Aki and Sexton each grabbing their first tries of the afternoon as Ireland took a 33-8 half-time lead.

The second half was much more fluency in Ireland’s performance as their fitness shone through while Romania wilted, reaping the rewards of their two weeks of hot-weather training during the summer in Portugal and France. Rob Herring’s 45th minute try got the ball rolling, followed by two from Peter O’Mahony and one from lock Joe McCarthy before Aki, Sexton and Beirne each notched their second tries of the day.

“Before the game if you asked us if we'd be happy with the scoreline, of course we would,” Farrell said. “I actually thought at half time we'd a few things to sort out, I thought we stopped the flow of our game quite a bit in regards to a few errors in our game, and discipline, and got a little bit frantic with our communications, certainly after line breaks there were a few passes on the floor etc.

“I thought after the break we was very composed, I thought we showed our intent, our togetherness as a team, how in-sync we were with the ball in hand, our fitness was great, and our skill level was pretty good as well. Delighted with how we played, certainly in the second half, but certainly not the first two minutes.” 

Farrell was particularly pleased by the ruthless streak his side displayed to keep the ball alive past the 80th minute and claim their 12th try through Beirne, playing at blindside flanker, who finished from long-range after replacement fly-half Jack Crowley’s dinked chip was collected by Aki.

“I didn't know what was happening! I was down on the sideline and was begging them to keep the ball in play,” the Ireland boss said of that final score.

“I thought at one stage Hugo was going to kick it off, and then Mack Hansen started playing like an under-12-year-old, which was great. There was a chip over the top, and I was thinking, 'why did we chip that?' and then Bundee got it back, but it was an outstanding way to finish the game, for the crowd more than anything.

“They understand straight from the start with the way that they prepare, the ownership they had during the week, points matter. We don't know what different ramifications will happen in two, three or four weeks’ time.

“It's important that we got off to a good start and rack up a few points, and that was the aim. To do that you have to stick to the process and I thought we did that pretty well and got our just rewards in the end.”