Ireland full-back Rob Kearney expects his team to become more defensive as the Rugby World Cup goes on.

Joe Schmidt's men cruised to a 50-7 win over Canada in their opening game, running in seven tries at Millennium Stadium.

Asked about his side's attacking style, Kearney said he felt that would change as the tournament went on.

"One of the criticisms of us in the Six Nations last year was that we weren't scoring enough tries. We did that against Scotland and some of the chat this week was if we can try and approach this game with a similar sort of mind set in attack then we would get a few more tries," he said.

"Listen, backs will tell you we're in it for the tries and we like to play running rugby, so when you get that you're happy.

"Ideally you want to be scoring tries but it's more important to win the games. I think you'll find as the tournament goes on, and teams get more evenly matched, you're going to see a lot more kicking ball and aerial contesting.

"I think that's just the nature of the game. It's a tactic that teams will use when the stakes are higher.

"I think if we just had to go out and win that game by one point you probably would have seen the same sort of game plan as we used in the previous weeks [in warm-up games]."

The Pool D-topping Ireland take on Romania at Wembley on Sunday, with players expected to be rested.

Kearney, who has been battling a knee issue, said he was ready to go if called upon by Schmidt.

"There'll be a few guys who won't be fit for this weekend or who'll be rested, based on a few niggles. It's not like the Six Nations where you've got an unlimited amount of players," he said.

"Some guys will be asked to step up again and that's the World Cup and we're more than happy."