Three phases later Carty used a penalty advantage to cross kick deftly to the right wing, where Ringrose had stayed to time his run, jump and catch above Timothy Lafaele to perfection. Ringrose made the initial fend and break, before switching with Earls, and Furlong snaffled the loose offload. Garry Ringrose made a sensational start, and after finding Stockdale with a skip pass was on hand to collect the offload inside for Rob Kearney to deftly link with Josh van der Flier, before the crosskick tactic worked a treat. Ireland were turning down penalties at goal, and Carty crosskicked for Earls off one. Reprieved, Ireland soon struck after O’Mahony won a penalty with the jackal when Chris Farrell wrestled prop Jiwon Koo to the ground. Eddie Jones regrets not making changes for World Cup final.Scottish Rugby Union ‘expresses regret’ over Storm Hagibis comments.Pool A: Ireland and Scotland should have too much for Japan.Initially, Carty was content to kick in behind Japan’s left-winger Lomano Lemeki, and as a result Ireland controlled the field position, with half a dozen lineouts inside the Japanese half in the first 25 minutes. The biggest swathe of green was congregated behind the goal Ireland attacked in the first-half, with Jack Carty getting proceedings under way. The stadium, which was built for the 2002 World Cup, and where Ronaldinho embarrassed David Seaman with a lucky lobbed goal which was surely meant as a cross, was packed to the rafters. “Johnny is likely to be involved in our next match,” Schmidt told ITV. Joe Schmidt also intimated strongly that Johnny Sexton will play in Ireland’s next game against Russia in Kobe on Thursday. Jack Conan was seen with his injured foot in a moon boot, furthering the sad likelihood that his World Cup might be ended prematurely, with Jordi Murphy removed from Ulster’s win over the Ospreys last night to be on standby. A telling moment was the sight of the Japan pack steamrollering Ireland’s attacking put-in just past the half hour.īefore the game – the sizeable Irish contingent was perhaps slightly inflated by the empty seats being coloured green – each squad ended their warm-ups and the Brave Blossoms formed a human chain with an arm on the shoulder of the man in front or beside them. Ireland’s defence missed 10 tackles in each half, compared to six last week, and their set-piece also crumbled to costly effect. Maybe it was the heat and humidity which compounded the six-day turnaround, as against Japan’s eight days, but as feared, there was also a different mental dynamic to this game compared to their respective openers.
Leading 12-3 after a strong first quarter, they stopped playing, began looking increasingly limited in attack and, akin to Twickenham, the legs seemed to go from them. Photo: Adam Davy/PA WireĪll that said and done, Ireland really struggled to resource rucks and affect clearouts, not helped by the manner in which they increasingly lost collisions. Ireland players stand dejected after the defeat. There Gardner was conned into giving Japan penalties when they held Irish players in, while allowing them all manner of largesse. Ireland had profound problems at the breakdown and will feel a huge grievance over the awful performance of referee Angus Gardner, losing the penalty count 9-6, with most of the damage done at ruck time. Roared on by the majority in a 47,813 crowd, they grew in strength and ambition and skills as the match wore on, and were merited winners.
Ireland need a handsome, 10-point return from their remaining games against Russia and Samoa.īut the feel good factor generated by the handsome win over Scotland has been largely eroded.Ĭredit to Japan. In the process, the Brave Blossoms blew Pool A wide open, and although Ireland secured a bonus point – which was the most their performance deserved – to win the group and, most likely, avoid the All Blacks in the quarter-finals, they now need Scotland to beat Japan, providing Japan fail to pick up bonus points from their remaining fixtures. This was, for sure, some day for Japanese rugby and as an extension some day for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but it was a deeply disappointing and damaging defeat for Ireland.