Irish told to harness hurt of defeat
JOHNNY SEXTON has challenged Ireland to channel the hurt of Saturday’s shock loss to Japan into their final pool meetings with Russia and Samoa. Joe Schmidt’s squad will target maximum points in their final two group games after their defeat by the tournament hosts blew Pool A wide open. Sexton, who sat out the shambles in Shizuoka, wants Ireland to make a statement against the Russians in Kobe on Thursday. ‘With a five-day turnaround (from the Japan game), it’s probably a good thing this week,’ said the Ireland fly-half. ‘Guys want to get on the pitch as soon as possible. A week is a long time in sport — how high we were last week to how low we were today and we want to get back on the other side of that as soon as possible. ‘We can take the hurt into this week a little bit but it’s going to stay with us until the end of this tournament.’ Chris Farrell will sit out Thursday’s clash after the Munster midfielder suffered a concussion in the Japan game, while Jordi Murphy could be pitched straight into action after the Ulster back-rower arrived in Japan yesterday as injury cover for Leinster no 8 Jack Conan, who has returned home with a foot fracture. When Robbie Henshaw will return from a hamstring injury remains unclear but Sexton is raring to go and is set to resume kicking duties after he picked up a quad injury in the 27-3 win over Scotland on the opening weekend. ‘That’s the plan anyway,’ he said. ‘Some of the thinking behind last week was that when I picked up that knock, it made kicking a big risk for the rest of that game. I was aware of it on some of the hang kicks, when you need to be 100 per cent. ‘I kicked a little bit this morning and trained with the physios again today, and will hopefully train fully on Tuesday.’ Schmidt is set to ring the changes for the clash with pool minnows Russia with the likes of Dave Kilcoyne, Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne and Bundee Aki set for recalls to the starting line-up. And forwards coach Simon easterby is looking for a strong finish as Ireland hunt for a spot in the quarter-finals. ‘It (the Japan defeat) hasn’t altered our thinking in terms of selection for this week,’ he said. ‘We have travelled. It’s not a million miles away from where we were but we have got to adjust to new surroundings. ‘We have got a training session on Tuesday and a captain’s run on Wednesday and then we are into a game on Thursday. ‘In that respect, we have always had a plan for this week. Obviously, we have to adapt to guys who might pick up injuries and have done so over the last week or so. ‘We want to make sure we slot those guys back in when we can. That might be this week, it might be the Samoa week. ‘So nothing has changed from our perspective in terms of the planning regardless of the result last night.’