Carty gets pivot role for Ireland against Japan
HAMAMATSU: First fiveeighth Jack Carty will make just his second start for Ireland, against Japan on Saturday, with the exclusion of Johnny Sexton from the matchday 23.
Coach Joe Schmidt has made four changes to the team that comfortably beat Scotland in its World Cup pool A opener.
Connacht’s Carty made his debut for Ireland last month, but looked sharp off the bench against the Scots after Sexton came off midway through the second half. He had relinquished kicking duties earlier in the game after receiving a knock to the quad.
His main understudy, Joey Carbery, returned from injury to make the bench.
Rob Kearney and Keith Earls also recovered from the minor injuries that kept them out of the 273 win to return to the Irish backline, where Chris Farrell comes in for Bundee Aki.
‘‘Obviously we’ve left a couple of guys out who trained on Tuesday but not fully,’’ coach Schmidt told media. Carty was told then he would be playing.
‘‘I thought he came on and played really well against Scotland. That gives us confidence and just allows us to freshen guys up and work through a few combinations as we work our way through the pool, and hopefully it will be a cohesive performance because it’s going to have to be against Japan, because we know how good they can be.’’
Schmidt named an unchanged pack after flanker Peter O’Mahony was able to train fully. He passed his concussion assessments following a knock to the head which cut his game time short against Scotland.
While the same applied to Aki, Schmidt said he probably was not due to play against Japan anyway.
Clearly not keen to risk Sexton too much before a potential quarterfinal against South Africa, Schmidt was pleased his key playmaker ‘‘got a little bit of mileage under his belt’’, even if the experienced Leinster No 10 was itching to start, having played some part in training this week.
‘‘He’s never happy about being left out. He’s always looking to play but he had a good hitout against Scotland,’’ Schmidt said.
‘‘We thought about bringing him off the bench and giving us the security off, but we also . . . wanted to get [Joey] involved. . .
‘‘It just means that we take the pressure off Johnny a little bit this week. Johnny’s a guy who plays really well fresh and can come back in and hit the ground running.’’ — Reuters