Japan the giant slayers

What an amazing game of rugby!

The hosts have put on a display for the ages downing the Irish 19-12 in thrilling fashion.

After last World Cup, Japan put the world on notice, proving that they will no longer be the easy beats that they have been in the past and that they are no longer here just to make up the numbers.

Prior to 2015, Japan had played 24 World Cup matches – coming away with one win, one draw and 22 losses. Needless to say, no one expected too much from the brave blossoms, even their team name doesn’t strike much fear into the opposition.

Then out of nowhere, they won three out four of their pool games in 2015 knocking over the Springboks in arguably one of the best matches of rugby you will ever witness in a David versus Goliath type of affair and narrowly missed out on a quarter-final berth.

Now enter the 2019 Rugby World Cup and Japan have once again claimed another mighty scalp by beating Ireland on home soil. The week before the World Cup began, Ireland had just claimed the world number one ranking and were among the top contenders to take the Webb Ellis trophy home.

Now, their pool has been blown wide open and they are at risk of missing out on advancing past the pool stages altogether, leaving Japan with a massive opportunity to progress to the knock-out stages for the first time in history.

Ireland started the game well, with two early tries to Garry Ringrose and Rob Kearney off the back of kicks taking them to a 12-3 lead after 22 minutes. But that’s where their scoring ceased. From then on Japan ran in 16 unanswered points thanks to the boot of Yu Tamura and a beautifully worked try to Kenki Fukuoka.

Simply put, the hosts were magnificent. They held onto the ball well, were incredibly accurate with ball in hand and were inspirational in defence. On the rare occasions that the Irish did have attacking ball, Japan smashed them back behind the advantage line due to their impressive line speed and energy that didn’t let up for the full 80 minutes.

Kazuki Himeno carried the ball ferociously, drawing at least two defenders every run. Tamura marshalled the outside backs superbly, they lost Amanaki Mafi early who had been very impressive, but lost absolutely nothing by bringing their usual captain Michael Leitch on from the bench – Leading the way in terms of line speed in defence and strong carries in attack.

They may not possess the individual talent and ability that we see in the top rugby nations but what they lack in talent they more than make up for in effort and energy. The opposition just couldn’t keep up, forcing them to an uncharacteristically high count of penalties conceded.

(Photo by Clive Rose – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Back to the drawing board now for Ireland – who were heavy favourites to top their pool leading into this game. Worrying signs for coach Joe Schmidt, particularly around their execution and decision making especially at the death where they were down 19-12 with no time left on the clock, they had just turned the ball over through a handling error by Japan and for some reason Joey Carbery decides to put the ball into touch, bringing the game to a close.

Maybe he was securing the bonus point for losing within seven points?

What a day for Japan and what a tournament this is shaping up to be. Japan can now lay claim to owning the two biggest upsets in World Cup history. But more importantly, they are two from two and sit at the top of Pool A with Samoa and Scotland the only ones standing in the way of them making it through to the quarter-finals.

Expect a few more twists over the coming weeks.