Tony Brown, the Japan attack coach, believes that even without their Lions cohort and some rested frontliners Ireland will be a tougher proposition on home soil than was the case when the Brave Blossoms stunned them in the pivotal World Cup pool pool meeting in the Shizuoka Stadium when the sides last met in September 2019.
Ahead of this Saturday’s rematch at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 1pm) he also detects changes and improvements in the Irish team under Andy Farrell’s watch.
"I think they've improved a lot around the defensive side of their game. Their kicking and pressure game has improved a lot. Obviously that's the influence of Andy but you can still see Joe Schmidt's attacking style all over the way that they still play, but that could be Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton's influence during the Six Nations.
“They’re quality rugby players and they play the game a certain way which suits Ireland rugby. So probably a mix of both, in the strength of their defence, but also you can still see the attacking style that Joe brought in.”
Rematch
This rematch also revives pleasant memories of that seminal 19-12 win in the Shizuoka Stadium.
“That World Cup highlighted to the rest of the world that we were a good rugby team. It does bring back good memories, but Ireland in Japan is definitely a different rugby team to Ireland in Dublin,” says Brown.
“We know that the challenge is going to be huge, that Ireland are going to be a lot tougher this weekend so we don’t expect that Ireland will be an easy team to beat at home. On that day, we got a lot of things right.
“Ireland had a few injuries, changes to their team. They got a few things wrong that gave us the opportunity to win that day.”
Asked to expand, Brown revealed: “We felt as though Ireland was a possession team. They like to hold the ball for multiple phases and we felt our best chance of winning that day was to take the possession and control the ball as much as possible and try and put Ireland under pressure with our attack and our speed.”
The former All Blacks outhalf lamented missed opportunities against the Lions last Saturday and admitted Japan's younger players needed to "lift their standards massively because Test rugby is far ahead of Top League rugby".
Under pressure
But only games such as these can enable them to maintain their unique and entertaining style, and thus capitalise on the inroads made at the World Cup.
“We need to get more Test match rugby so we can put our style, the way that we play under pressure. Then, to develop that further we need those tough games. We want to play fast, we want to play with skill. We want lots of ball-in-play time. Obviously we don’t want to take on top rugby teams in the physical challenge.
“We can meet that challenge, but we want to play with a style that creates winning opportunities for Japan.”
