O’Donovan demands better from Ireland
Stand-in Ireland coach Niall O’Donovan wants his side to cut loose against Japan in Sunday’s second Test in Tokyo.
O’Donovan, deputising for Eddie O’Sullivan who is with the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand, knows a improvement on their 44-12 defeat of the Cherry Blossoms is needed next weekend.
The Irish coach said: “I thought we performed quite well – considering it’s a team just put together and missing so many of the regulars due to the Lions tour.
“There are no excuses though – the players would be first to admit that they were sluggish at times and we’ll be working on that in training this week.
“You’re always going to get teething problems, especially with six players coming in for their debuts, and new combinations being formed,” added O’Donovan, who is being assisted by homegrown coaches Mark McCall (Ulster) and Michael Bradley (Connacht) in the Far East.
“With that game under our belts, I’d expect the players to up the pace for the second Test.
“They know they need to be more clinical – we should have been putting away more scores but just didn’t do it and that was disappointing.”
The result was less than impressive when you consider that Ireland’s haul of four tries – scored by Tommy Bowe, Kevin Maggs, Frankie Sheahan and Simon Best – was less than minnows Korea managed last month.
Japan were stung for five touchdowns by their Asian rivals in a recent World Cup qualifier, and an under-strength Argentina ran eight past Mitsutake Hagimoto’s Japan in April.
Ireland’s kickers David Humphreys, who was forced off with a cut mouth after 21 minutes, and his replacement Jeremy Staunton landed three conversions and six penalties between them to put a gloss on the visitors’ win.
“Any time we got into an attacking position, Japan spoiled it and slowed the game down,” said O’Donovan. “That’s why we got a lot of penalties.”
“We tried to build through the phases a number of times but never really got anywhere.
“In saying that, we did take our tries well but Japan were spoiling a lot of our ball and that contributed to the stop-start nature of the game.”
The Irish squad took the famed Bullet Train as their mode of transport from Osaka to Tokyo this afternoon, with 33-year-old stand-in captain Humphreys recovering from his facial injury.
The Ulster fly-half is nevertheless expected to feature in Wednesday’s team announcement.
Humphreys sustained a badly swollen mouth from a boot to his face against Japan but, following an X-ray, no serious damage was reported.
Backs Kieran Lewis (Leinster) and Conor McPhillips (Connacht) should also be included in O’Donovan’s second Test squad.
The young duo are the only players in the Ireland party yet to make their international debuts.
