Sexton enjoys his gala day in Dublin
IRISH coach Andy Farrell has turned his attention to the visit of the All Blacks to Dublin next weekend after his side thrashed Japan by nine tries to one at the Aviva Stadium.
Two years on from ruining Ireland’s World Cup campaign, Japan’s lack of game-time for their players going into this one was obvious and a ruthless Irish side, featuring 14 players who have played for Leinster, didn’t relent on an afternoon when Johnny Sexton crowned his 100th appearance with a try.
Farrell knows this stroll will be light years away from what they will face next weekend against New Zealand but he was pleased with many aspects of their performance.
“We’ll let the dust settle, see how people turn up and how they train as well. We certainly should have a bounce,” he said.
“We’re happy that the performance matched the occasion. It was nice to see some things coming to fruition. I thought when we were calm in attack, we were clinical. Sometimes we got ahead of ourselves.
“Our defence was outstanding. We didn’t have to do much but there was a reason for that, we put pressure on Japan and they spilled the ball a bit. And our set-piece got on top of them.”
Ireland led 29-0 at the break after dominating from the start and they never looked back after man-of-the-match Jack Conan put James Lowe through for the opening try in the left corner after
four minutes. Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park sent a grubber through for Andrew Conway to get the first of his hat-trick seven minutes later, with Sexton landing touchline conversions from either side.
Conway’s second try and one from Gibson-Park meant the game was over as a contest by half-time, but the carnival atmosphere continued after the restart as Sexton got his 15th Irish try after a superb 50:22 from full-back Hugo Keenan. It provoked the biggest cheer of the day from a crowd 10,000 short of capacity, and Sexton landed the conversion as well.
He was also instrumental in the build-up to the sixth try with props Tadhg Furlong and Andrew Porter involved as Bundee Aki got through to score.
The only respite for Japan on a tough day came when a rare attack was finished in the corner by Siosaia Fifita after 57 minutes, but Ireland resumed control again after Sexton departed to a standing ovation just after an hour.
Garry Ringrose scored when he punished a sleepy defence off a scrum as Japan’s resistance wilted and Ireland continued to get stronger as they emptied an impressive bench.
Conway completed his hat-trick with his 13th try in 26 appearances after a grubber from his Munster teammate Conor Murray, while replacement prop Cian Healy wrapped up the issue when he drove over for their ninth try in the closing stages.
Superb back rower Conan said that having crowds back was a huge factor and he’s now looking forward to having a crack at the All Blacks next weekend.
“It was unbelievable, it was great to have the fans back. I don’t think I’ve ever heard noise as loud as when Johnny went over in the corner.
“I think we were just backing the skillset we have and the ability of the players the coaches picked. It’s pretty evident we trusted ourselves playing into holes and to space. It worked really well.
“It’s onwards and upwards now. It’s a good start to this series of games, we’ll have a look during the week and fix some things that need to be fixed and then look to next week.”