Ireland unable to adapt to changing circumstances against Japan
Ireland women’s rugby captain Nichola Fryday admitted struggling to adapt to changing circumstances was a contributing factor in her side’s 19-point defeat to Japan at Prince Chichibu Rugby Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday.
Comprehensive 57-22 winners over the Sakura Fifteen in the opening test of an historic summer tour in Fukuroi City a week earlier, the visitors hit the ground running with a third-minute try from Natasja Behan – her first at the international grade. The Japanese largely dominated proceedings after that point, however, with Fryday and her Irish team-mates finding it impossible to peg back the hosts once they settled into their stride.
“I think it was probably just the speed of the ball that they were playing. They were catching us out and [we committed] silly errors that we should be able to fix on the pitch. That’s a learning curve for us as a team as well,” Fryday remarked after the game.
“You have to be able to react to the scenarios that are in front of you. One week the referee will be in your favour and the next week maybe not. You have to be able to play the game that’s in front of you. It’s frustrating, but we’ll definitely take our learnings from it.”
With a move that was straight off the training ground, Ailsa Hughes released Behan out wide on the right for an early deadlock-breaker. Ireland subsequently withstood serious pressure from the Japanese, but were ultimately carved open either side of the first-quarter mark.
From identical attacks deep inside the opposition ’22’, Ayasa Otsuka and Rinka Matsuda crossed the whitewash to leave Ireland 12-5 in arrears at the interval. Japan looked a completely different outfit to the one that finished the previous week’s test and further enhanced their authority on the resumption.
After Hinano Nagura grabbed their third try, full-back Matsuda dotted down for the second time in the contest to give Japan a healthy cushion. Ireland finally responded with a five-pointer of their own from replacement prop Katie O’Dwyer, but this was as close as Greg McWilliams’ charges came to turning the table on their opponents.
Although Jess Keating and Emma Tilly appeared off the bench to join former England flanker Jo Brown in making their Ireland debuts, Sachiko Kato’s try placed the outcome firmly beyond doubt on 65 minutes.
Despite coming off second best in the end, Fryday was eager to focus on the positives that came with leading an Irish women’s side into battle for their first-ever summer series.
“If we look back at the start of this tour, we’ve come on so much. Every single girl in that room should be hugely proud of this tour because it was the first women’s tour. We got a win and we got a loss, and that’s just the way test rugby goes,” Fryday added.
Tries: R Matsuda 2, A Otsuka, H Nagura, S Kato. Cons: A Otsuka 2
Tries: N Behan, K O’Dwyer.
R Matsuda; H Nagura, M Furuta, S Nakayama, K Imakugi; A Otsuka, M Abe; S Minami, N Nagata, M Lavemai; M Takano, Y Sato; S Saito, I Nagata, A Nagai.
S Kato for Minami, Y Sadaka for Lavemai, K Tamai for Sato (all 50), K Hosokawa for Nagai (56), K Taniguchi for Nagata (60), M Tsukui for Abe, O Yoshimura for Takano (both 65), M Yamamoto for Otsuka (77).
M Deely; N Behan, A Dalton, E Breen, A Doyle; D O’Brien, A Hughes; L Feely, N Jones, L Djougang; H O’Connor, N Fryday; J Brown, E McMahon, G Moore.
K O’Dwyer for Feely (46), M Scuffil-McCabe for Hughes (56), C Pearse for Djougang, E Hooban for Jones (both 69), T Schutzler for O’Connor, J Keating for Brown, E Tilly for Behan (all 74), L Tarpey for Dalton (76).
L Jenner (New Zealand).