Sunday, September 29, 2019

Online comments after Japan v Ireland

A selection of the “keyboard warrior” reactions after the full-time whistle of our featured matches of the weekend.

If you’d like to contribute stay tuned to our Facebook page for our “Feel free to leave your thoughts…” posts which show up around full time after Leinster & Ireland matches.

Gavin Macarthur Ireland looked like a team that did not prepare for what Japan were - very fucking obviously - going to bring. There were serious lapses in leadership all over the pitch and that’s why, in my opinion at least, this team did not win. Where in the name of fuck were the leaders? Why bother lining out to play when you can be so readily turned over by players who don’t command anything like your salaries but still believe in fighting very very bloody hard for something worth winning?

Why do the same teams win the world cup, again and again? They don’t ever stop playing as hard as they can for as long as they can. Until Ireland can do that, there will be no world cups. More to the point, there will be no global respect.
Noel Hewson Totally outplayed for the last 60 thats what was most worrying. This was not a close game. Would not say panic set in but it got very loose. After a bright start got no direction from half backs. Disappointing.

Conor Cronin Japan were far better prepared. Too many penalties at the breakdown and no one with a plan of what to do when we had the ball. We'll done Japan, better team today
Greg Kelly Carty is definitely the more capable backup to Sexton. I though Carbery offered little when he came in and perhaps regrets his little chat with Uncle Joe last year

Neil Keegan Can’t argue the result. Japan played with that emotional extra they kept up for 80. Can’t help but salute that.

Ireland started well but the toll of the Japanese keeping the ball in play without breaks took its toll. Along with japan knowing we don’t offload, so they managed the tackle so much better than we did

No team is as good as their best result or as bad as their worst. Let’s remember that and please act like adults in the face of defeat.
Richard Mifsud Good start from Ireland then we went to sleep and a series of unforced errors let them back into the game and full credit to them they never looked back. This will go down as an ‘upset’ but TBH the more I see Japan play the more I think that any talk of upset or fluke is disrespectful to this Japanese team. We didn’t impose our game plan on them so losing was no surprise. JS will be livid and rightly so because I think this one is down to the players and frankly we’re lucky to get a point from that. Does not augur well at all. On course for a QF against the ABs and on this performance there is only one outcome to that 🤷🏻‍♂️

Michelle Tobin It's a sad state of affairs when protecting a lbp needs to be your priority. Japan were superb, Gardner was rubbish and Ireland were disappointing. Could have been so much worse, our defence did some great work when we needed it, Earls saved a definite try. Penalty count killed us, we gave away uncharacteristic penalties in the middle of the field time after time. You can't do that and win matches
Cian O'Mulleoir Credit to Japan, they've clearly targeted this game for a long time and played their game plan to a T.

We were absolutely unable to impose our gameplan, add to that the heat fatigue and error/penalty count, and this was never coming back our way.

Hubert Gallagher I’m not sure why so many are surprised by the result. Japan were always targeting this game. Home advantage, terribly difficult conditions to play in (humidity and heat), a tempo that they have been playing at for years, tackling like demons and the Japanese spirit of needing to leave everything on the pitch in front of their home crowd - and Ireland sailed into that perfect storm expecting to weather it safely but were blown away as the storm didn’t let up or fatigue. Superior speed and fitness made the difference over power. Spirit and will beating technique and yes the ref was brutal but you can’t deny that the penalties against us were real and due to pressure. Play then in Dublin and it’s a different story. In Japanese style all we can do is bow low and say well done - and use the resentment to get bonus point wins in our next 2 matches and take out our resentment in the QF now most likely against the ABs
Mick Penrose Great to watch that Japan play.. incredible and I hope they can keep it up. They deserve it. We just looked knackered and void of ideas. Its as if we have a game plan and when it works we look great and when it doesn't we have some inability to change on the hoof. Keep doing the same things the same way and expect something different to happen. Very deflating

Bernie Cunningham They played us off the pitch, just hope Japan beat Scotland then we may scrape tru...Japan deserved the win..they will win the group
Gav Heg We had no plan B. Ref didn't go our way and we lacked the leadership to deal with it. Everytime we attacked we were stopped solidly, they do the same and made a couple more yards.

Craig Boyd We are so one dimensional. Deserving for the team playing all the ambitious rugby winning the game
Andrew Potts Irelands set piece play creaked. Lineouts and scrums which for the last five years have been a real strength have become a point of attack for the opposition. Static one out ball carriers will trouble no team in this world cup. Ireland will possibly do enough to get out of the pool with the games remaining. but that mean pack of forwards that strangled teams has pretty much gone. Where do Ireland go now? Is there a plan B.You cannot fault the effort of the players, Japan won because they were just simply the better team..

Catherine McGrath Best team won today
Martin Loughrey Lucky to have a losing bonus. Japan played a blinder all over the park. They should have had a BP. Fair play to them. They beat us well.

Patrick Sheahan Ireland were looking good with 20 mins into the game. 2 tries scored but as the game progressed they became flat, lost and overwhelmed. I don't think any player in the irish jersey played well. Conor Murray was getting offside alot. Carter kicking could have been better. Stockdale wasn't himself, not one chip kick and try to get the ball on the hop. Best fucked up a few line out. Which started the downfall as he overthrew at the line out. None of our set pieces worked i.e scrum, line out, maul, box kicks.
Richard Collumb Too many errors especially when we were in opposition 22. Worryingly the line out started to malfunction again.

The next two games should be BP wins but on today's display we'll lose in Q-Final again

Kevin Scullion Angus Gardner was awful. But we still wouldn't have won that game with a well performing ref. Best team won
Kevin Kelehan Better team won, well done Japan and now for Scotland to do us a favour


Many thanks to all who offered opinions.

Look out Monday for our match writeup JLP
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Taken by JLP from RDS press box on Nov 16, 2019