Ireland have far too much for Japan without hitting top gear
Ireland's Jack Crowley celebrates scoring his side's first try against Japan. Picture: INPHO/Gary Carr
Ireland commenced their home international series with a comfortable, if unconvincing, victory against Japan at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Japan may have defeated Wales back in July, but they had looked well off the pace when being dispatched 61-7 by South Africa last weekend at Wembley, so there was never likely to be any repeat of their famous win over Ireland at the 2019 World Cup.
Ireland opened the scoring in the sixth minute after the Irish scrum had won a penalty and outhalf Jack Crowley slotted the resultant kick from 35m.
Eddie Jones’ side had a lot of possession early on as they utilised their rapid ruck speed and took quick lineouts but they struggled to breach the Irish defensive line.
Debutant centre Tom Farrell, who was becoming the oldest back to debut for Ireland in the professional era, was tip-tackled in the 17th minute with Japanese centre Charlie Lawrence being yellow carded for the offence.
Ireland capitalised on their numerical advantage just a couple of minutes later. Tight-head Thomas Clarkson burst through the centre with a big carry and fed the supporting Robbie Henshaw and, after a quick ball, Craig Casey and Caelan Doris combined to put Crowley through a gap to score a try after 19 minutes.
It took a while for the next score to arrive, but it came on the half-hour mark when second row James Ryan picked up a loose ball and popped it to openside Nick Timoney and the Ulster man had the gas to get home in the left corner.
The Irish lineout had completely malfunctioned in the first half and eventually Japan had a spell in the Irish 22 with Kenji Sato crossing after a destructive maul.
The Japanese out-half Seungsin Lee converted the try and he also had the last say in the half as he slotted a penalty from 30m to make it 17-10 at the break, as Jacob Stockdale was receiving a yellow card of his own for a head-on-head contact.
Andrew Porter got the scoreboard moving in the second half when he crashed over from close range in the 49th minute after Tommy O’Brien had gone close.
Jacob Stockdale thought he had scored after diving on the ball after he himself had blocked a Japanese kick but it was unfortunately chalked off for an earlier offside.
The Irish display was sloppy with a lot of handling errors all round. The overall execution will have to be far sharper against Australia and South Africa in the coming weeks.
Ireland did not score again until the 67th minute when Gus McCarthy capitalised on a rumbling maul to get himself on the scoresheet, and four minutes later his fellow replacement front row and namesake Paddy McCarthy got his first try for his country when he picked up the ball and dived over from close range to score.
The scoring was ended in the 76th minute when Sam Prendergast gave a lovely inside pass to Tommy O’Brien and the Leinster wing had the pace to get home from 40m.
J Crowley (1 try, 1 pen, 2 cons), S Prendergast (2 cons), N Timoney, A Porter, G McCarthy, P McCarthy, T O’Brien (1 try each).
S Lee (1 pen, 1 con), K Sato (1 try).
J Osborne; T O’Brien, T Farrell, R Henshaw, J Stockdale; J Crowley, C Casey; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Clarkson; J Ryan, T Beirne; R Baird, N Timoney, C Doris.
C Prendergast, J Conan, S Prendergast for N Timoney, C Doris and J Crowley (50), G McCarthy and F Bealham for R Kelleher and T Clarkson (57), C Blade for C Casey (61), P McCarthy and J O’Brien for A Porter and J Osborne (65).
Y Yazaki; K Ishida, D Riley, C Lawrence, T Osada; S Lee, N Saito; K Kobayashi, K Sato, S Takeuchi; E Uluiviti, W Dearns; B Gunter, K Shimokawa, F Makisi.
K Tamefusa, M Leitch and S Fujiwara for S Takeuchi, B Gunter and F Makisi (58), R Iwaihara for K Kobayashi (61), Y Hirose for Y Yazaki (69).
Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR).
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