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B. Hogan (10', 30'), B. Parsons (37', 76'), A. Dalton (55')
Tries
M. Nagaoka (40', 44'), N. Nagata (67'), N. Asari (80')
D. O'Brien (11', 31', 77')
Conversions
M. Furuta (44'), M. Nishi (68')
This told us more about where Ireland are mentally than anything tactical. After a week of bruises — a blown 19-point lead to the USA, a late training-ground injury to Aoife Wafer, and the long shadow of Sam Monaghan’s absence — they found enough control to close out a stubborn Japan. Not clean, not definitive, but a step back towards composure.
The selection shake-up mattered. Without Wafer’s go-forward, Ireland needed alternative carriers and a tidier set piece to own field position. They got both often enough. Brittany Hogan shouldered the early load with two close-range finishes and a 15-tackle shift, while Jemima Adams-Verling punched holes off the base (56 metres from six carries) that kept Ireland on the front foot in a way they weren’t late on against the USA. And when they needed a finisher, Beibhinn Parsons gave them two.
Where it swung was discipline. Ireland were 19–0 and cruising when captain Erin King was binned on halftime. Japan, who have looked fragile this window, did not pass up the invitation: they struck either side of the break to drag it to 19–12 and change the body language in Galway. That period shrank the pitch for Ireland, who suddenly had to kick, chase and tackle rather than stack phases in the red zone. King had said in the week, “We’ll put the disappointment behind us and respond next week when we head to Galway’s Dexcom Stadium to face Japan.” They did respond, but the yellow card is the sort of lapse that keeps sides in games.
The decision that settled nerves came from the bench. Introduced at the interval, Aoife Dalton straightened the attack and took her chance on 55 minutes to restore a two-score cushion. It wasn’t elaborate — it didn’t need to be — but it was a moment of accuracy after a jittery restart to the half. Even then, Japan hung on. Replacement hooker Nijiho Nagata finished to make it 24–19 with just over ten to play, and you could feel last week’s ghosts in the stands. This time, Ireland found the right strike. Parsons appeared late on the edge, took on a tired shoulder and finished on 76 minutes; Dannah O’Brien knocked over the extras. Japan’s final-play try through Nami Asari closed it to seven, but by then the contest had gone.
If the margin flatters anyone, it’s Japan a touch. Ireland were two scores clear until the clock was red and had controlled the key restarts through that final quarter. Yet the winners won’t kid themselves. Sixteen penalties and a yellow card is a messy ledger when you’re trying to rebrand yourselves as a team that can manage a lead.
What Ireland did well was visible in the nuts and bolts. The lineout, so often anchored by Monaghan, ran at 90% with Neve Jones accurate and Dorothy Wall reliable in the air; Japan’s sat at 71%, which bled them platform. Both scrums were perfect, but Ireland’s throw gave them the territory to play with. Out the back, Parsons (100 metres, two clean breaks) and Stacey Flood (66 metres, two offloads) offered real gain-line threat, the sort of punch that forces soft shoulders on phase three and four. Defensively, there was graft: Niamh O’Dowd made 20 tackles, Wall 16, a workload that reflects how much time Japan spent asking questions without necessarily winning collisions. And O’Brien’s 3/5 off the tee won’t make headlines, but the late conversion that put it back to a two-score game mattered.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAKS
TACKLE
TACKLES MISSED
TURNOVERS WON
PENALTIES CONCEDED
YELLOW CARDS
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
Japan will take more than a losing bonus. After conceding 55 to Italy, they were harder to break down, more disciplined (10 penalties), and they kept playing. Moe Nagaoka’s brace around halftime punished Ireland’s lax moment, and Nagata’s energy from the bench gave them a second wind. You could see Moe Tsukui’s fingerprints on the tempo — they were keen to move bodies and ask edge-defence questions — but the lack of clean lineout ball starved them of multi-phase in the right parts of the field. When they did get front-foot ball, Ireland’s scramble coped. That’s the step they need next: turn ambition into repeat entries and sharper execution five metres out.
For Ireland, the takeaway is that the back-row balance worked well enough without Wafer because others stepped up. Hogan was outstanding on both sides of the ball; Adams-Verling carried like an eight who expects to bend contact. The set piece looked stable in Monaghan’s absence. But discipline remains an anchor. Sixteen penalties, a card, and a late concession is not the profile you want heading into a meeting with South Africa’s pack. The good news is that the red-zone moments were clearer, and when stress came at 24–19, they found a strike rather than a spiral.
Japan leave Galway with a blueprint that looks far closer to their identity under Toshizumi Kitagawa: organised, ambitious, alive off the bench. Fix the lineout and they’ll trouble Wales. Ireland finally bank a win in this window, and with it a small proof of concept — structure and strike runners can carry them — but the ceiling won’t lift until the penalty count drops and the captain stays on the field.
