Ireland’s men surged into the semi-finals of the Champion’s Challenge II at Belfield with a vastly improved performance, eliminating tournament top seed Japan with a game still to play in Group A.
They began with much more purpose than Monday’s encounter with Chile, with Mikey Watt penetrating the Japanese circle inside 20 seconds.
It was a clear signal of the performance to come as Ireland powered into a 3-0 half-time lead.
For the second night in a row, John Jermyn was the key man, firing home low penalty corners in the 11th and 18th minutes - the first won by expert work from Mitch Darling.
The individual error count - a serious issue against Chile - dropped to almost zero as the fast-breaking of Eugene Magee, Mikey Watt and Darling caused all manner of problems.
Indeed, Ireland’s third came direct from a defensive penalty corner. Johnny Jackson stole possession on the edge of his circle before feeding Stephen Butler who provided the pace to a pitch-length attack.
His one-two with Watt left a clear shooting chance. In truth, his reverse was miscued but Watt anticipated brilliantly to squeeze the ball through Katsuya Takase’s legs for a comfortable 3-0 lead at half-time.
The second half proved a lower key affair as Japan played a higher press. It led to Joe Brennan, John Jermyn and Graham Shaw all picking up green cards.
Ireland still created the bulk of chances but, with Jermyn on the bench, three corners were saved. Timmy Cockram’s reverse-stick cross was just out of Darling’s reach, while Magee swept wide a breaking ball.
Hiroki Sakamato created a few late chances, the most dangerous of which saw the otherwise flawless David Harte stranded for once. Pembroke club mate Tim Lewis, though, mopped up the danger to ensure the clean sheet.
Speaking afterwards, Irish coach Paul Revington was pleased his side’s performance had stepped up after a nervy first game on Monday night against Chile, though he would like to have seen some more goals.
"It was a damn sigh better than yesterday [against Chile]. This should be a standard performance. If we perform well we should be scoring five or six goals, in my opinion in games like this, but this is the kind of performance I expect."
