World Cup party time as Japan stun Irish
JAPAN dazzled the World Cup for the second time in four years as they stunned Ireland 19-12 in Shizuoka and put the country in party mode.
The hosts have one foot in the quarter-finals with matches against Samoa and Scotland to come and can look forward to a place in the last eight.
On the form they showed here, with wing Kenki Fukuoka scoring the crucial try on the hour, they can give both those teams sleepless night.
But coach Jamie Joseph was intent on giving his Brave Blossoms a night on the town before looking further down the road.
“The boys will have a couple of beers tonight,” he said. “Internally there was a lot of belief around what we were doing and what we were working towards and we were able to display that today.
“We have been focusing on today for the last year at least. Ireland have been thinking about it since Monday.
“Tonight we saw 50,000 people here of whom 40,000 were in red jerseys. You feel really proud.”
Japan came back from 12-3 behind to strangle Ireland in the second half. Joseph added:
“The Irish tried to take us on physically and mentally but we were prepared for that.
“There were turning points when players showed real courage. It is those moments in big games of
rugby that turn the game so I am pretty proud of our boys.”
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt urged his side to bounce back in their remaining games also against the Russians and Samoans.
He said: “The strength of the team will be how they respond and rebound from this. We will have to chase a little bit now because we want to stay in with a chance of topping the Pool. Certainly we’ve got to get in the top two.”
And Schmidt defended Joey Carberry’s decision to kick the ball into touch at the end of the game to salvage a losing bonus point. He added: “Potentially the bonus point could be very important. It means that we’ve got six points from our pool from two games so far, Japan have got nine and Samoa five. “You’ve got to finish in the top two so keeping that bonus point allowed us to stay ahead of Samoa in the short term. We know Scotland will be a player and Russia will line us up in five days’ time.
“Those tight turnarounds are pretty tough going. We will have to chase a little bit.” Schmidt confirmed No.8 Jack Conan will be going home with a broken foot.