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Post the return of the boss after a year away, post the All Blacks defeat in Chicago, the plusses were in short supply as Ireland put a 32 point win, three late tries adding gloss, on Japan. At the same time, though, it was a significant result as it battened down an important 2027 RWC hatch. Combined with Scotland's loss to New Zealand, Australia to Italy, and France losing to South Africa later that night, Ireland will make the looming Rugby World Cup draw (Dec 3rd) as a top six seed, guaranteeing they will head up one of the pools. As it was, the early lineouts were poor forcing an unusually large percentage to be thrown to the front thereafter, the scrum was so-so, the penalty-count was good at eight, while 15 turnovers was high but represented the open nature of the contest. There was little gleaned about the battle for the no10 shirt, Jack Crowley started and set up the win as well as nailing an excellent first-half try. He'd left Ireland 22-10 ahead on taking his 52nd minutes leave (substitutions, worldwide, as being coming earlier and earlier which won't necessarily suit Ireland's although that's down the worry-list at the moment). “I thought Jack's try epitomised what he's after and what we’re after as a team, taking responsibility," noted Andy Farrell afterwards. "He's backing what he sees and making the call and communicating and getting that communication with authority for others to be able listen and adhere to. "I suppose that strength can also be a weakness at times where we didn’t quite flow with intention because it’s not just Jack, it’s a backline, it's a communication thing. "Playing early, I thought we missed a couple of opportunities, it’s just not the half backs’ fault, it’s a combination of things. So, yeah, there’s always ups and downs." Sam Prendergast came in at the same time as his older brother Connacht-based Cian, a nice touch, as Japan's wrestlemania defence was starting to lose its abrasive edge. The fresh out-half took a fresh approach, lying slightly deeper so he could scan for kick-passing as well as making himself available to handle twice in the line. “I thought Sam played with nice pace when he came on, he was certainly brave with this touchline kicking, I thought that was tremendous. "He turned the corner well and played at the line and kept them hanging off him and allowed people to run into big parts of holes etcetera. He did okay when he came on." Meanwhile, and overarchingly, talk about the age profile of this squad in recent weeks that's not an issue on Farrell's watch - for the moment as least. His first post-RWC 2023 squad was not concerned with, or picked on that metric as a factor, it was essentially the same group without Johnny Sexton. Consider this: If the 2023 quarter-final backs Keenan, Hansen, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe, Gibson Park sound familiar so do the forwards Porter, Sheehan Furlong, Beirne, Henderson (started last week), O'Mahony (Conan was on the bench), van der Flier, Doris. Joe McCarthy, Kelleher, Crowley, Jimmy O'Brien, Bealham were also on the bench, Henshaw was injured, which makes it a fair bet a very, very similar group will be playing the four-years-on quarter-final at RWC 2027. “Well, it is what it is," says Farrell who, by contrast, had set big change in motion following the RWC 2019 handover. It is hard to believe Father Time just jumped out from behind a tree last week to surprise him. "You’ve got what you’ve got and you plan for what you think you’re going to have etcetera. The rest of it is just noise, isn’t it? I look forward to watching France and South Africa later on tonight." That game will have provided little succour, played at breathtaking pace, two monster packs using their Bomb Squads very, very early in the second-half - it was, compared to the Ireland game, er, night and day. The 'boks were 13-14 down at half-time in the face of a scintillating French performance, a man down to a late red card in the half, before digging in and scoring two late tries to win 32-17. Ireland play Joe Schmidt's Australia next Saturday (8.10pm), a side that pushed the Lions close followed by two teams from another planet, South Africa in a fortnight and France in an unfamiliar Thursday night opening Six Nations game. That's a triptych that won't seem any easier on rewatching Ireland-Japan where it was difficult to pick a Man of the Match (Tommy O'Brien got it, possibly ahead of Jamie Osborne). "There were parts of Tommy's game that he wouldn't be happy with," continued the boss of a 27-year-old now in direct competition with Mack Hansen, 27, for a World Cup berth. "He can be delighted with himself just because of how he attacked the game, he wanted to make a difference and he thoroughly deserved his Man of the Match. But that's what you want. I mean, you know, nobody's asking for perfection." Osborne's close to Man of the Match performance has similar caveats but his education is about to come to a sharp halt with an arm/shoulder injury that brings fears he may need an op for a broken bone. There are six rugby playing combinations front-second-back row, half-back, centre and back three and the Ireland coach wasn't bigging up any of them on the day. "Some combinations worked their way into the game," he said in a thinly disguised reference which means not starting with the impact as they were supposed to. "Certainly the front row, coming on, did really well. The centres worked themselves into the game, with more intention in the second half. Then, the wingers grew into the game, certainly, as well." IRELAND: Jamie Osborne (Jimmy O’Brien 66); Tommy O’Brien, Tom Farrell, Robbie Henshaw, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Crowley (Sam Prendergast 51), Craig Casey (Caolin Blade 62); Andrew Porter (Paddy McCarthy 68), Rónan Kelleher (Gus McCarthy 58), Thomas Clarkson (Finlay Bealham 58); James Ryan (Cian Prendergast 51), Tadhg Beirne; Ryan Baird, Nick Timoney (Jack Conan 51), Caelan Doris (captain). JAPAN: Yoshitaka Yazaki; Kippei Ishida, Dylan Riley, Charlie Lawrence (Yuya Hirose 68), Tomoki Osada; Seungsin Lee (Shinya Komura 58), Naoto Saitō (Shinobu Fujiwara 58); Kenta Kobayashi (Ryosuke Iwaihara 52), Kenji Sato (Shodai Hirao 68), Shūhei Takeuchi (Keijiro Tamefusa 58); Epineri Uluiviti (Jack Cornelsen 54), Warner Dearns capt; Ben Gunter (HIA – Michael Leitch 48-58), Kanji Shimokawa, Faulua Makisi (Michael Leitch 58). Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi [FIR]. Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond
