Hannah Tyrrell started in the back-three for the second game in succession. After featuring at full-back in the 19-17 midweek victory over Australia, the Dubliner switched to the right wing last night for another close encounter in Pool C at the UCD Bowl.

The Old Belvedere star admitted that she was nervous heading into the opening game of the tournament last Wednesday, but does not believe that nerves have been a critical factor in Ireland’s recent performances.

Speaking after the hard-fought 24-14 win over Japan, she said: “I was a bit nervous in the game the other day at the start. Today, for me personally, I felt much more confident. I think we were ready to go. We’re just not clicking at the minute. We just have a lot of unforced errors, and that’s really hampering us from getting going.

“Once we get into our stride, and we have a couple of phases, we’re really breaking teams down, and we’re getting results we need. Nerves aren’t really a big problem. Nerves are part and parcel of games for people, it’s just how you deal with them. I think we’re alright for the minute.”

Ireland trailed the Japanese by 14 points at the turnaround following a below-par first half performance from the hosts. However, they managed to turn things around and avoid a huge World Cup upset thanks to tries from Alison Miller (45 minutes) and influential replacement Paula Fitzpatrick (64 and 80).

Tyrrell felt that basic errors handed the initiative to Japan whose scrum was very much on top in the lead up to half-time. Yet, Ireland’s strong bench ironed out the set piece issues while the breakdown battle was dominated by the home side as the game wore on. Now, with a second win under their belts, they need to focus on Thursday’s Pool C decider with France, who top the table by two points.

“We had a lot of handling errors at key moments of the game that really kinda gave back the ball to Japan and put us on the back foot again. I think a lot of the time we did have ball in hand, and we were moving it quite well, be that direct or out wide,” added the dual-code international.

“We just kept turning over the ball, which is very unlike us, and not the way we want to play. That game is done and dusted, though. We got the job done and we’re just looking ahead to France now to rectify things.”

As well as reeling in Japan on the scoreboard, Ireland also had to deal with Katie Fitzhenry’s sin-binning in the early stages of the second half. However, Ireland’s line-speed improved considerably during the final half-an-hour, and Tyrrell explained that their only option was to chase the game at that stage.

“We were a player down there, we had no other option than to really go for it and try keep them out. I think we showed great resilience to get a score when we were a player down and really start the fightback, but we don’t want to be playing that way. We want to have that line-speed all the time, not just when we’re a player down. We’ll be looking to rectify that and go again in the next few days.”