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Late tries give stuttering Ireland win against Japan

Updated / Saturday, 8 Nov 2025 16:24
Jack Crowley scored the first of Ireland's six tries
Jack Crowley scored the first of Ireland's six tries

Ireland are back to winning ways, but they're by no means back to their best.

Andy Farrell’s side pulled clear of a feisty Japan side in the second half to run out 41-10 winners, but the Irish head coach won't be happy with a largely sluggish performance, in what was a sleepy, early afternoon game at Aviva Stadium.

Farrell gave several fringe squad players the opportunity to impress after last week’s defeat to New Zealand, although very few put their case forward to be retained when the Wallabies and Springboks visit Dublin in the next two weekends.

Tommy O’Brien was among Ireland’s six try-scorers, and the Leinster wing’s late effort was just reward for his performance on his home debut, one of the few players in green who consistently impressed.

Tom Farrell couldn’t get on the scoresheet, but the 32-year-old was heavily involved in the Irish carrying game, and did himself justice on his long-awaited debut.

Three tries in the final 15 minutes put a deceptive sheen on the result. The lineout struggles continued in the first half, which contributed heavily to a flaccid attack, while the game was riddles with handling errors from both sides.

Jack Crowley and Nick Timoney’s tries had put Ireland 17-0 in front with 30 minutes played; Crowley’s score was the one real fluid attack the home side put together in that first half, while Timoney’s (below) saw the Ulster flanker react well to one of the many handling errors that plagued the Irish performance.

8 November 2025; Nick Timoney of Ireland on his way to scoring his side's second try during the Quilter Nations Series 2025 match between Ireland and Japan at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

From that comfortable lead, they dropped 10 points before the break and lost Jacob Stockdale to a yellow card, before keeping the tourists at arm’s length with scores from Andrew Porter, Gus McCarthy, Paddy McCarthy and finally O’Brien eventually seeing them finish strongly.

The early afternoon kick-off did little for the atmosphere, and there were chunks of empty green seats still visible at the Aviva as Crowley tapped over a penalty on five minutes to put his side 3-0 in front.

Ireland’s start reflected the energy of the stadium, and the fact that they made just 10 carries in the opening 15 minutes summed up the early stages.

The continued lineout malfunctions didn’t help, with three Irish throws failing to find a man inside the first quarter alone.

Rónan Kelleher could be seen on the big screen gesturing that he couldn't hear the call shortly after being pinged for a dummy-throw after the third of those. One wonders how he couldn’t, given the sleepy atmosphere.

Despite that, they were finally able to make something stick when Japan’s Charlie Lawrence was yellow-carded for a tip-tackle on Tom Farrell on 16 minutes.

Crowley started and finished the opening try, floating a pass to Tadhg Beirne, who in turn played a deft pass to Tommy O’Brien.

After Ryan Baird made ground down the right wing, Thomas Clarkson punched a hole through the 22, and the quick recycle saw Caelan Doris flick a pass to his left, where Crowley was looping around to go in under the posts and score, converting his own try to make it 10-0.

It felt like drop of water that would break the dam, but Ireland continued to look sluggish, and couldn’t add to their lead during that yellow-card period.

They did move 17-0 in front just before the 30-minute mark, but it was a moment of opportunism from James Ryan and Timoney rather than excellent team play, as Ryan reacted fastest to a dropped ball from Beirne, freeing his hands to offload to Timoney, and the flanker sprinted to the corner for his try, converted by Crowley for a 17-0 lead.

By half-time, Japan had reduced the arrears to seven.

Back-to-back penalties allowed them work their way deep into the Irish 22, before they mauled their way over to score a try on 35 minutes – hooker Kenji Sato officially credited with the score through a blur of bodies.

Seungsin Lee converted that try, and kicked a penalty with the final play of the half to cut it back to 17-10, compounding the Irish frustration after Stockdale was sin-binned for a head-high tackle.

Mercifully, it wasn’t the start of an epic comeback, and Ireland had extended their lead out to 22-10 by the time Stockdale returned from his sin-bin.

Similar to the opening try of the game, it was a fluid and layered score, which started with a clean lineout taken at the front on 47 minutes.

Farrell won good yards up the middle before Doris looped around the back to gain ground in the 22. The recycle was fast, as Ireland played a couple of short phases up the middle, before a looping pass to O’Brien on the wing, and while O’Brien was stopped short of scoring, Porter ran a powerful line close to the ruck to drive over for Ireland’s third try.

Four minutes after returning from his sin-bin Stockdale though he had a try of his own after he was first to a breaking ball, after Cian Prendergast had charged down a kick from Yoshitaka Yazaki, but they try was chalked off after Prendergast had drifted offside from an earlier Irish kick.

The Ireland head coach went to his bench early, with everyone bar Paddy McCarthy and Jimmy O’Brien introduced by the hour mark, and it did up the tempo of the Irish game, with Jack Conan and Cian Prendergast looking determined.

The final touch was continuing to evade them, and they came agonisingly close to scoring when O’Brien was put through a gap by Sam Prendergast, only for his final ball to Stockdale having going too far into touch.

There was a scare on 64 minutes when Caolin Blade slipped off the tackle of the counter-attacking Yazaki, and the full-back broke for the Irish 22, before the cover arrived.

A knock-on from Michael Leitch ended that attack, and soon after Ireland put some daylight between the sides, when a penalty allowed them to kick for the corner, and they mauled their way over for a Gus McCarthy try, making it 27-10 with 13 minutes to play.

By now, the fight had gone from Japan, who were tiring badly and increasing their penalty count, and that led to Paddy McCarthy powering over for his first Ireland try with nine minutes left.

And in the closing minutes, O’Brien raced clear to get the try his performance deserved, buffing up the Irish winning margin, but still leaving many questions to be answered ahead of the visits of Australia and South Africa.

Ireland scorers: Tries: Jack Crowley, Nick Timoney, Andrew Porter, Gus McCarthy, Paddy McCarthy, Tommy O’Brien

Cons: Jack Crowley (2), Sam Prendergast (2)

Pens: Jack Crowley (1)

Japan scorers: Tries: Kenji Sato

Cons: Seungsin Lee (1)

Pens: Seungsin Lee (1)

Ireland: Jamie Osborne; Tommy O'Brien, Tom Farrell, Robbie Henshaw, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson; James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne; Ryan Baird, Nick Timoney, Caelan Doris.

Replacements: Gus McCarthy (for Kelleher, 57), Paddy McCarthy (for Porter, 67), Finlay Bealham (for Clarkson, 57), Cian Prendergast (for Ryan, 51), Jack Conan (for Timoney, 51), Caolin Blade (for Casey, 61), Sam Prendergast (for Crowley, 51), Jimmy O'Brien (for Osborne, 65).

Japan: Yoshitaka Yazaki; Kippei Ishida, Dylan Riley, Charlie Lawrence, Tomoki Osada; Seungsin Lee, Naoto Saito; Kenta Kobayashi, Kenji Sato, Shuhei Takeuchi; Epineri Uluiviti, Warner Dearns; Ben Gunter (for Makisi, 57), Kanji Shimokawa, Faulua Makisi.

Replacements: Shodai Hirao (for Sato, 67), Ryosuke Iwaihara (for Kobayashi, 51), Keijiro Tamefusa (for Takeuchi, 57), Jack Cornelsen (for Uluiviti, 54), Michael Leitch (for Gunter, 49), Shinobu Fujiwara (for Saito, 57), Shinya Komura (for Lee, 57), Yuya Hirose (for Lawrence, 67).

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

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