Ireland 57 

Neve Jones recorded a stunning hat-trick of tries at the Ecopa Stadium in Fukuroi City earlier today as Ireland shook a difficult opening to earn victory in the first of two summer test encounters against Japan.

Trailing by 15 after 11 minutes, Ireland then proceeded to amass 38 points without reply either side of the interval.

In addition to Jones’ scoring heroics, Aoife Dalton and Meabh Deely also crossed for tries on their competitive debuts while 18-year-old flyhalf Dannah O’Brien capped her first appearance at this grade with 12 points from the tee.

Playing in temperatures that soared to 26.2 degrees celsius, Ireland conceded early tries to Saki Minami and Komachi Imakugi in a nightmare start. Five points from the boot of Ayasa Otsuka put further daylight on the scoreboard, but Ireland finally shook off the cobwebs just shy of the first-quarter mark.

Having expertly picked out her captain Nichola Fryday from an attacking line-out, hooker Jones got her hands on the ball at the back of the ensuing maul and crashed over for Ireland’s opening score.

O’Brien supplied the extras with her first kick at goal in international rugby off her left-foot before superb approach play from Enya Breen and O’Brien’s fellow debutant Deely released Doyle for an unconverted finish in the corner.

A remarkable opening period turnaround was subsequently completed by Ireland in stoppage-time, when Dalton found space off an O’Brien pass to touch down in clinical style and give the visitors a 19-15 interval lead.

Jones has been a revelation for Ireland since breaking into the starting 15 in an autumn test triumph against Japan last November and she sealed her hat-trick with set-piece tries in the 42nd and 53rd minutes respectively.

Ireland were now playing with real confidence and Deely capped an exceptional first outing with a terrific solo try just shy of the hour mark. Another O’Brien conversion increased the Irish advantage to 23 points, before Japan finally fired back through replacement prop Makoto Lavemai’s try on 63 minutes.

This was only a brief respite for the hosts, however, as replacements Pearse, Scuffil-McCabe and Hooban all grabbed late five-pointers to laid down a marker ahead of next weekend’s return game in Tokyo.

Scorers for Japan: Tries: S Minami, K Imakugi, M Lavemai try each, Pens: A Otsuka. Cons: A Otsuka 2. 

Scorers for Ireland: Tries: N Jones. A Doyle, A Dalton, M Deely, C Pearse, M Scuffil-McCabe, E Hooban. Cons: D O’Brien 6.

JAPAN: R Anoku; R Kurogi, R Matsuda, S Nakayama, K Imakugi; A Otsuka, M Tsukui; S Minami, N Nagata, Y Sadaka; K Tamai, M Takano; M Suzuki, K Hosokawa, A Nagai.

Replacements: M Lavemai for Sadaka (h-t), S Saito for Nagai (50), M Abe for Tsukui (60), M Kawamura for Hosokawa (66), H Komaki for Nagata, K Taniguchi for Minami (both 67), M Yamamato for Otsuka, S Korai for Takano (both 73).

IRELAND: M Deely; N Behan, A Dalton, E Breen, A Doyle; D O’Brien, A Hughes; L Djougang, N Jones, K O’Dwyer; N Fryday, S Monaghan; D Wall, E McMahon, H O’Connor.

Replacements: G Moore for McMahon (3-11, blood), C Haney for O’Dwyer, Moore for O’Connor (both 51), N Cronin for Hughes, M Scuffil-McCabe for Doyle (both 61), L Tarpey for Cronin (64), E Hooban for Jones, C Pearse for Djougang (both 67), T Schultzer for Fryday (73).

Referee: L Jenner (New Zealand).