Jansen stars on debut as Ireland beat Japan in Newcastle

It's two bonus-point wins from two for Ireland in the Nations Championship as they wore down a spirited Japan in Newcastle, New South Wales.

Ireland were 36-20 winners in front of 11,021 supporters at McDonald Jones Stadium, scoring five tries in a win that was deserved without being dominant.

Billed as an opportunity for some of Ireland’s wider squad players to impress, it’s unlikely many will have done enough to make Andy Farrell stand up and take notice.

The head coach made nine changes from last week’s 33-31 defeat of Australia in Sydney, and for periods of this game Ireland looked like a side lacking in cohesion.

In spite the scrappy display, Ireland never really looked like being beaten by Eddie Jones’s side, whose best avenues into the game were through picking apart Ireland’s lineout, which had another night to forget.

The major positive for Farrell will be his debutant Sean Jansen. The Connacht number 8 was Ireland’s standout player and marked his debut with a deserved try, looking explosive on both sides of the ball.

All four debutants had their moments; Sam Illo and Billy Bohan were both introduced with the game still in the balance and earned a scrum penalty apiece, while Bryn Ward replaced Jansen with 19 minutes left, and looked to carry as often as possible.

Like last week, it was a back and forth first half with the lead swapping hands multiple times as Nick Timoney, Tom O’Toole and Robbie Henshaw all scored tries for a 19-13 lead at the break, before Jansen and Tom Stewart’s second half scores ensured Ireland would head to Auckland with maximum points from their opening two Nations Championship games.

For the second week in a row, Ireland were slow out of the traps, falling behind inside just three minutes.

Rónan Kelleher’s lineout inside the Japan half floated over the hands of James Ryan, where it was picked off by winger Taira Main, and a slip from Frawley opened the space for him to break free, stepping O’Brien to score the opening try, converted by Takuro Matsunaga for a 7-0 lead.

It was a frustrating start for both Kelleher and Frawley, but both players shook it off to contribute to an excellent equalising score shortly after. Kelleher snaffled up a loose ball before Ireland won penalty advantage, with a beautiful drawback from Timoney allowing Frawley send Jacob Stockdale into the 22, and on the 14th phase of an impressive, fluid attack, Timoney barged over for an Irish try, as Frawley converted for 7-7.

It remained sloppy through the opening quarter; Ireland won a penalty at the scrum before conceding one back, and while Ryan made a great lineout steal, Craig Casey kicked out on the full and Stuart McCloskey infringed at a breakdown, allowing Matsunaga kick Japan into a 10-7 lead off the tee.

The Irish attack was looking sharp at least, and just before the end of the first quarter O’Brien darted on to a Kelleher pass to break into space, with Timoney and McCloskey also connecting as Ireland got close to the line, before Thomas Clarkson popped the ball up to O’Toole (below), who burrowed over the line for his first international try, for a 12-10 lead.

Frawley’s straightforward conversion went wide of the right post, and Japan were back in front on 28 minutes, another penalty from Matsunaga after another McCloskey infringement, this time for offside.

A penalty against Japan for escorting off a kick allowed Ireland back into the 22, just after the half-hour mark, and while their first effort didn’t go according to plan, another penalty gave them a second go, with a powerful maul moving them forward, before a powerful carry from Henshaw driving them over the line for their third try, and a 19-12 lead.

That’s how it stayed until half time, but Ireland should have extended their lead when a great lineout play saw McCloskey plough on to an overthrow, with further carries by Timoney and Jansen bringing them in to the 22, but Casey picked the wrong option when he tried a quick pass to outside to Henshaw, when O’Brien was wide open and free on the right wing, and it was read by Main, who snuffed out the attack to keep Japan within a score at the break.

The start of the second half continued to be clunky.

Ireland were penalised at the scrum for a second time, with a high-tackle penalty following, but Tadhg Beirne came to the rescue from the resulting play, when he turned over the Japan maul, allowing Ireland escape from their own 22.

Farrell went to the bench early, calling in Sam Illo and Bundee Aki, and the Connacht pair made an instant impact; Illo getting the nudge on a midfield scrum before Aki timed his run perfectly to punch through into the 22, before they went wide to Kelleher who got Ireland close to the line, and a couple of phases later Jansen barged over for his debut try to bring up Ireland’s bonus-point, with Frawley converting for a 26-13 lead on 52 minutes.

Japan replied by bringing their young loosehead Sojiro Otuska on, and he took Illo up front to win Japan a penalty, and although Casey and Ryan contributed to excellently deny Sam Greene in the corner, a crooked lineout throw from Kelleher gave Japan another bite at the cherry. This time they made it count, with Hayate Era squirming over for their second try, converted to make it 28-20.

With seven of Ireland’s bench holding five caps or fewer in their careers, there was a nervy feeling at McDonald Jones Stadium heading into the final quarter, but as the game grew, the second Japan wave never really arrived.

Aki’s tenacious work in defence forced a turnover at a ruck, with O’Brien also impressing in their air, while the introduction of Harry Byrne saw Frawley move to full-back, and they dovetailed nicely to keep Ireland playing in the right areas down the stretch.

With eight minutes to play, Byrne knocked over a penalty to give Ireland a two-score buffer, and it allowed them finish the game in style.

Japan’s discipline fell apart, with Era sent to the sin-bin for repeated infringements, and with the final play of the game Ireland took advantage as Cormac Izuchukwu broke down the left wing, and after moving infield, Nathan Doak darted a pass back inside to his Ulster team-mate Stewart, whose try capped off a deserved, but at times scrappy win.

Scorers

Japan: Tries: Taira Main, Hayate Era

Cons: Takuro Matsunaga (2)

Pens: Takuro Matsunaga (2)

Ireland: Tries: Nick Timoney, Tom O’Toole, Robbie Henshaw, Sean Jansen, Tom Stewart

Cons: Ciarán Frawley (3), Harry Byrne (1)

Pens: Harry Byrne (1)

Japan: Takuro Matsunaga; Kazuma Ueda, Dylan Riley, Yuya Hirose, Taira Main; Ryunosuke Ito, Naoto Saito; Takato Okabe, Mamoru Harada, Shuhei Takeuchi; Harry Hockings, Warner Dearns (capt); Ben Gunter, Kanji Shimokawa, Jack Cornelsen.

Replacements: Hayate Era (for Harada, 47), Sojiro Otuska (for Okabe, 53), Keijiro Tamefusa (for Takeuchi, 53), Michael Stolberg (for Hockings, 52), Michael Leitch (for Shimokawa, 52), Tiennan Costley (for Hirose, 31), Itsuki Kamimura (for Saito, 72), Sam Greene (for Riley, 40).

Ireland: Jamie Osborne; Jimmy O'Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Ciarán Frawley, Craig Casey; Tom O’Toole, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson; Tadhg Beirne (capt), James Ryan; Jack Conan, Nick Timoney, Sean Jansen.

Replacements: Tom Stewart (for Kelleher, 59), Billy Bohan (for O’Toole, 54), Sam Illo (for Clarkson, 47), Cormac Izuchukwu (for Conan, 61), Bryn Ward (for Jansen, 61), Nathan Doak (for Casey, 70), Harry Byrne (for Stockdale, 59), Bundee Aki (for McCloskey, 47).

Referee: Andrea Piardi