Reaction: Ireland run in five tries as they beat Japan
7/11/202622 min
After a 36-20 victory over Japan, Gordon D’Arcy, John O’Sullivan and Nathan Johns analyse Ireland’s performance in their latest Nations Championship action.
What debutants put in strong performances? Did established players take responsibility? And was there enough on show to generate optimism going into next week's clash with New Zealand?
Produced by John Casey.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNathan Johns· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the CounterRugby podcast, brought to you by The Irish Times in partnership with Oak Energy. Nathan Johns here with John O'Sullivan and Gordon Darcy about to join me to review Ireland's 36-20 win over Japan. Five tries for Andy Farrell's side. They are top of the Northern Hemisphere group in the Nations Championship. Was this an improvement from a much changed Ireland team compared to last week, or are we still a little bit concerned about aspects of disjointed play? John and Gordon are gonna chat through it with me now. Gordon, John, hello. Welcome back. That week flew by, but anyway, [laughs] Japan 20, Ireland 36. Um, Darce, I was listening to you again on, on comms on the ITV feed. The general demeanor was not ideal in many cases, but given the changes, pretty happy?
Gordon D'Arcy· Panelist0:55
Lots of changes, lots of debuts. It was a game, you know, that you wanted to go really, really, really well, and you wanted Kieran Foley to be at his swashbuckling best. Ah, and then after 30 minutes you realize this wasn't gonna be that game. Um, so that's fine. This, this happens. You know, a lot of players getting exposure at this level. Yeah, you know, I was joking with, uh, Stuart Lancaster in the taxi on the way here, and he was, we were saying you sometimes get matches that you don't want as a player, and you'd prefer to be last week in the team