LONG WAY STILL TO GO
Humbling defeat to Japan was a proper reality check for Irish rugby
THE hope will be that Ireland’s players can filter this disappointment out and absorb the good from three weeks spent in Japan. The experience of full-time training will stand to a group, many of whom will benefit from some of the 43 contracts due to be issued by the IRFU ahead of next season.
And the first Test display contained enough impressive detail to support the view that head coach Greg McWilliams is, however incrementally, edging Ireland towards better times.
This, though, was a relentless, 80minute reminder that much remains to be done. Ireland were compromised by injuries to the back row that led to other changes, while the callow back-line that thrilled a week earlier was left in place.
On both counts, Ireland suffered. Japan hardened up their set-piece to the point that there was Irish pain in both scrum and lineout, while the youthful brio that inspired the daring of the first Test was replaced by mistakes easily attributed to greenhorns.
Handling errors were a problem, while defensive alignment was glaringly off too many times.
Japan’s fourth try was also an excruciating study in faulty tackle technique with Rinka Matsuda, the dangerous Japanese full-back, striding easily past limp efforts from both Natasja Behan and Meabh Deely on her way to the line.
As bad was conceding two tries off first-phase possession, a failure that has to become unforgivable among the standards demanded.
The Irish players kept trying, but that is merely a detail to note; it’s not a cause for praise any longer.
The burning desire of players and their coaches is to leave those days behind, and a week ago it looked like they were moving in that direction. Discounting the conditions would not be fair. The players had spoken during the week of trying to train in such heat, and it was in the high 20s in Tokyo.
Fatigue must have been an issue given the toll of training so intensively for three weeks in that heat and humidity, but it can’t explain away the display. The visitors were just way off where they had to be in practically every facet of play.
The pressure they were under was reflected in their faltering discipline long before it became so pronounced on the scoreboard.
Captain Nichola Fryday was, generously, given two final warnings by match referee Lauren Jenner for their desperate defence as Japan ploughed close to the Irish line in the second quarter. That they kept 15 players on the pitch was an achievement.
The reaction of the Japanese players to victory showed a group eager to play their final Test before the World Cup, which starts in October.
But their delight seemed more informed by the sting left by losing last week’s opening Test by 35 points. That they improved so much in a week was also telling because at this level of Test rugby, wild fluctuations in form are commonplace – and so are ways of addressing them.
That will provide some consolation to McWilliams and his coaching team, too. He will know that keeping key players fit and instituting consistent, reliable setpieces will leave Ireland in a robust place come the Six Nations.
They won’t be contenders, and painful days against England, France and possibly Wales, too, are real risks, but there is no easy way to get Ireland to the standards McWilliams demands.
Reversals like this one are inevitable, and that should temper criticism. But denying reality and persisting with a search for positive points no matter what the truth serves no one well.
Better to acknowledge this was a humbling result that was the consequence of sub-standard play that ran through the team and which they couldn’t shake for 80 minutes.
Days like this afflict developing teams. Working them out and stopping them happening on anything but the rarest of occasions is the key. ‘We’ll learn from today,’ McWilliams vowed afterwards.
‘We were ill-disciplined in the first half. Momentum in sport is a funny thing and we struggled to gain any momentum. When we had a little bit of it, it didn’t go our way, and we need to own that.’
He was bullish, however, about the benefits of this trip. ‘If you said to me beforehand that we would go 1-1 in the summer tour against a side prepping for the Rugby World Cup, I probably would have taken it and, more importantly, we had an opportunity to develop as a group and really know these players. I’m excited for where this programme is going, and we have to learn lots of lessons from today.
‘After winning last week we wanted to go 2-0,’ he admitted. ‘We came up against a different Japanese side that were very physical. They played at a good pace and we knew they’d be coming at us. The game just went against us, it’s why we love sport. One minute it’s great and the next minute it’s terrible.’
As well as his technical attributes, McWilliams’ attitude has been one of the most striking features of his public appearances since getting the job. His commitment to women’s rugby is long established, and if the grit of days like this is to be used in a positive way, he will be determined to do so.
‘As the head coach of a group of management and players, I’m so proud,’ he concluded.
‘I’ve been very lucky to have coached at schools level, at provincial level, international men’s, the professional game and I can genuinely say that this group are a special group that are only going to get better.’
Japan: R Matsuda; H Nagura, M Furuta, S Nakayama (M Yamamoto 77), K Imakugi; A Otsuka (O Yoshimura 63), M Abe (M Tsukui 63); S Minami (capt, S Kato 52), N Nagata (K Taniguchi 61), Y Sadaka; Y Sato, M Takano; S Sato, I Nagata, A Nagai (K Hosokawa 56).
Ireland: M Deely; N Behan (E Tilly 76), A Dalton (L Tarpey 75), E Breen, A Doyle; D O’Brien, A Hughes (M Scuffil-McCabe 56); L Feely (K O’Dwyer 47), N Jones (E Hooban 70), L Djougang (C Pearse 71); N Fryday (capt), H O’Connor (J Keating 78); J Brown, E McMahon, G Moore. referee: Lauren Jenner (New Zealand).