Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ireland’s Test prep is on track
THE Irish players and management will get their first taste of a bullet train today and life outside Tokyo when they depart for 2019 World Cup venue the Ecopa Stadium and the opening test against Japan. The squad will leave their Tokyo base to speed by bullet train 200 kilometres southwest to Hamamatsu ahead of Saturday’s opener. The 50,000 capacity ground staged three matches in the 2002 soccer World Cup and will be one of the venues when the rugby tournament is held here in 2019. The Irish squad and management are beginning to make an impact on the ground as they prepare for Saturday’s opening test against Japan. It remains to be seen how many of this inexperienced Irish squad will make that trip in two years but Josh van der Flier knows this dry run is bound to be beneficial. “It’s pretty cool to play in the stadiums the World Cup will be in and getting used to the culture and of course Japan, who are in our group. It’s a great experience,” said the 24-year old. He won his eighth cap in the 55-19 win over the USA on Saturday in New Jersey but knows the two matches against Japan will be tougher. “Japan are capable of beating the best teams in the world, so it will be a big step up, and we’ll have to improve on last week. “They seem very well drilled, playing really fast tempo game, it’ll be a tough game, we’ll have to be at our best. They had a really close game against Wales, beat SA, so they’re up there with some really, really good teams.”