Uh, oh. Well that certainly wasn't in the script. After a convincing win against Scotland last week looked to have put Ireland well on their way to winning Pool A at the Rugby World Cup, along came the hosts Japan and blitzed Joe Schmidt's men in one of the upsets for the ages. The Brave Blossoms were superb, Ireland were fairly dreadful and now World Cup hopes are up in the air. Ireland are still well on course for the quarter-finals but the prospects of a meeting with the All Blacks have now become signifcantly more realistic, as Patrick Madden breaks down in the Pool A permutations. Japan are no strangers to World Cup upsets having stunned South Africa four years ago and, on a memorable night in Sizuoka, they took their intensity and tempo to Ireland early on and never allowed Joe Schmidt's men the room to breathe. "This was, for sure, some day for Japanese rugby and as an extension some day for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but it was a deeply disappointing and damaging defeat for Ireland," writes Gerry Thornley from the Ecopa Stadium.
In the Land of the Rising Sun the Rugby World Cup hasn't made too much of a dent so far (as Keith Duggan outlines in his big read this morning) but this victory could well change that. "At the gong, the red and white jerseys celebrated like they had just won the World Cup. In a way, they had. The vanquished Irish were hugely respectful afterwards before leaving the field to get their heads straight. Japan's Blossoms lined up to take a famous, famous bow to their countrymen," writes Keith Duggan from Shizuoka. The fallout for Ireland is set to be pretty hefty but there is no time to dwell as Russia await on Thursday in a match that is now looking vital for Ireland to win with a bonus point. Joe Schmidt is bound to make some changes for that match and some of today's players will have a lot to prove, as Gavin Cummiskey writes in his player ratings.
Schmidt remained resolut after the defeat, congratulating Japan and expanding only a little on the areas where Ireland went wrong. He did reveal that Jack Conan's World Cup is over due to a broken bone in his foot with Jordi Murphy set to be called up as a replacement while Rob Kearney failed a HIA and could miss Thursday's match. However, as Gerry Thornley writes, "privately, Schmidt and the Irish camp will have more grievances about the performance of Angus Gardner than they let on here, the Irish head coach having recalled perceived injustices from the last time the Australian refereed Ireland, against Wales in March, two days before this game. One ventures Gardner may well have noticed." Joey Carbery's decision to kick to touch in injury time has come in for some criticism in a few quarters but, as the Leinster man told Gavin Cummiskey afterwards, he didn't feel there were many options on and wanted to protect the bonus point. Don't forget you can follow all of the build-up to Japan with columns, analysis, news, interviews, stats, fixtures and much more on our dedicated 2019 Rugby World Cup site.
Rugby World Cup results (Saturday, September 28th)
Argentina 28 Tonga 12 – read the match report here
Japan 19 Ireland 12 – read the match report here
South Africa 57 Namibia 3 – read the match report here
