Ireland Japan

[hellovating]

In the morning. The Japanese have been feisty all week.

Jordi pulled from tonight's Ulster game. Off to Japan to replace Conan. Pity for Conan, he's quality. Jordi an excellent back up.

[paddy no 11]

Hope this is a decent contest

Would rather we play them off the park than submit them

Unlucky for conan

[paddy no 11]

Can't say I'm missing sexton

[Beasties]

Just tuned in, Japan gone from 3 points to 9 in short order and stuffed the Ire scrum in the time I've been watching. And looking good value for it so far, I'll be watching right to the end now. Has the makings of the Jap v SA match last time.

[paddy no 11]

Beirne will close this out

[Lizard]

Oh my.

[bruce]

Well feck me, Japan deserved that.

[Beasties]

Totally. Great game to watch. Japan remain my second fav team.

[Spiffy]

Ireland shellshocked. Nothing certain in this pool now. Well done a tough, fit and fast Japanese team who played like demons and gave it everything.

[Mikey Brown]

They’re going to annihilate Scotland if they play like that again.

[paddy no 11]

Well deserved whatever saint joe says about ref

Japan were excellent

Scotland must be worried

[Digby]

Just very odd from Ireland, ever since beating NZ they've rather lost their way

[Lizard]

Watch this. It’s fairly enlightening as to Japan’s RWC prep.

[Mr Mwenda]

Commiserations ireland fans, i know what it's like to be on the wrong dnd of a dream result. Brilliant from japan, mind.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Ffs

[Hooky]

Let's not take anything away from Japan. This was no gutsy rearguard or smash and grab. They matched Ireland, even surpassed them physically. The rest of the world better sit up and take note of this Japanese side. I see them beating Scotland too.

[Sandydragon]

Let's not take anything away from Japan. This was no gutsy rearguard or smash and grab. They matched Ireland, even surpassed them physically. The rest of the world better sit up and take note of this Japanese side. I see them beating Scotland too.

Completely agree. Superb team performance.

[cashead]

Watch this. It’s fairly enlightening as to Japan’s RWC prep.

He's moved the good stuff over to Vimeo to escape Youtube's overzealous copyright algorithms.

Anyway, Squidge has proposed an interesting theory, based on how Ireland's play was a departure from Schmidt's low-risk style - that he made the mistake of looking beyond this game, seeing it as a tricky fixture, yet one that Ireland will probably win, and a good opportunity to put the cat among the pigeons where it pertains to the likes of Hansen, Gatland, Jones and Rassie. All four of them would have worked on a plan to beat Ireland (Jones clearly has worked them out, Gatland probably has as well - and both Shag and Rassie would've watched England and Wales beat Ireland and taken notes), but by suddenly having Ireland play a modified style, that would create some uncertainty for those 4 who may end up meeting Ireland at some stage at the tournament as to how Ireland might play. Except, he failed to account for the fact that Joseph also knows what he's doing, and just may be the equal of those 4, drawing the best out of a weaker player pool than what they'd have access to. In effect, Schmidt, in trying to outsmart Shag, Gats, Jones and Rassie, ended up playing himself, and Joseph took full advantage.

[Lizard]

Yep. Good theory I reckon. Ol’ Squidge is pretty sharp.

[Digby]

There is Ireland were doing fine when playing wider and came unstuck when reverting to their narrower game. Where the impact of tactics lies vs fitness vs error rates vs the shambles of a lineout is open to question

[SerjeantWildgoose]

The shambles of a line-out! Nail. Head.

Ireland took about 8 minutes to get the ball and the game off the Japanese. They held onto both for the next 20 minutes or so, running in two tries and looking for all the world like they were cruising to a win.

On around 32 minutes Rory Best made a complete horlicks of a line-out, throwing too long and handing them the ball and space to run into. Within a couple of minutes they had destroyed our scrum (It may have been against the head, I can't rememeber), won a kickable penalty and scored. From the kick off we took ourselves deep into their 22, forced a line-out and set up for the redemptive score. A second line-out went awry and that was the game. We had won and lost it with 5 minutes of the first half still to play.

For all that he is one of sports nicest blokes, Rory Best must carry the responsibility. The line-out has always been a lottery with him, but his value has been his strength in the loose and as a captain. He failed on Saturday. The line-out could have been fixed, but instead he allowed the Japanese to seize the momentum following those 4 or 5 minutes - and did feck all to influence the seizing of it back.

Sorry Rory, but your course is run.

[Digby]

And then the next big problem once Ireland stopped attacking in the wider channels they went back to a kicking the ball away, but the kicking wasn't contestable and that just allowed Japan to set about running the ball at them over and over. I can't imagine Ireland have played many games in the last 5 years with so little ball, and this was an awful match up for them with the fitness levels showed by Japan and the ball in play time seemed to have a big impact

[cashead]

Them kicking the ball away was the weird thing, when the Irish attack under Schmidt has been based around withholding the ball from the opposition, and low-risk rugby.

Obviously Ireland did have a plan that would have worked - look at just how much havoc Carty caused with his kicking from hand - but they couldn't cope with the Japanese working around it and the pressure caused by the Japanese beating them in the rucks.

No one would disagree with the notion that Best isn't a fine player (his suckiness on Lions tours aside. Seriously what's up with that?) but his inability to go the 80 is a problem.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

The shambles of a line-out! Nail. Head.

Ireland took about 8 minutes to get the ball and the game off the Japanese. They held onto both for the next 20 minutes or so, running in two tries and looking for all the world like they were cruising to a win.

On around 32 minutes Rory Best made a complete horlicks of a line-out, throwing too long and handing them the ball and space to run into. Within a couple of minutes they had destroyed our scrum (It may have been against the head, I can't rememeber), won a kickable penalty and scored. From the kick off we took ourselves deep into their 22, forced a line-out and set up for the redemptive score. A second line-out went awry and that was the game. We had won and lost it with 5 minutes of the first half still to play.

For all that he is one of sports nicest blokes, Rory Best must carry the responsibility. The line-out has always been a lottery with him, but his value has been his strength in the loose and as a captain. He failed on Saturday. The line-out could have been fixed, but instead he allowed the Japanese to seize the momentum following those 4 or 5 minutes - and did feck all to influence the seizing of it back.

Sorry Rory, but your course is run.

I know you love to pin it on Rory, but our line out has malfunctioned regularly whoever has been chucking it in.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

I know you object to me pinning it on Rory, but he is the captain as well as being the most common denominator in in the malfunctioning of our lineout - and has been over a number of years now.

If Rory has a good game, Ireland usually go well. If, as has been increasingly the case of late, he has a mare ore is simply absent, Ireland don’t have the ball to go well with.