Jonathan Browne reporting live from the Aviva Stadium.
As expected, it was a bit of a damp squib of a test between Ireland and Japan. A midday kick-off, low vibes, and about 10,000 empty seats made up the cocktail for what was supposed to be Ireland’s opening home game this November feel like a non-event.
And the atmosphere wasn’t exactly helped by Ireland’s first-half display at the Aviva Stadium.
Jack Crowley celebrates scoring his side’s first try of the match. Pic: INPHO/Gary Carr
Allowing Japan to have much of the ball, Ireland rarely sought to go at their much weaker opponent, and when they did, they went to the high Garryowen, which gave sloppy ball if any at all.
Then there’s been Ireland’s most glaring issue for a while, the lineout. Ireland lost three lineouts in the first half alone, two of which in the Japanese 22, coasting the Boys in Green a good chance of scoring.
Just the two tries from Jack Crowley and Nick Timoney did little to lift the atmosphere, and ill discipline at the other end gave Japan an in to the game, with the Brave Blossoms scoring a try of their own and notching over a penalty after Jacob Stockdale was sin-binned.
Warner Dearns of Japan and Ryan Baird battle for possession in a line-out. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
The Lineout has been an issue for some time, with it seeming to go in cycles of being absolutely perfect to absolutely unreliable. ‘Ireland’s lineout has been absolutely woeful. This issue has persisted for way too long and is going to continue to cost us. Something needs to change, one fan posted on X during the first half.
‘Irish pack are so far off the pace it’s really hard to believe. Lineout is diabolical, obviously, but they look slow and like there are no carriers’, ‘Another poor start at the lineout for Ireland. Be interesting to see can they start to fix it. Been an issue for years’, others posted.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, an easy solution to what looks to be a complicated problem. ‘The calling needs to be a lot simpler though. It looked like Ireland waited to make a call in the lineout, rather than pre-calling it.’