Newcastle, Australia ¨C Coach Eddie Jones says Japan are on the right trajectory, with the way they played against Italy and Ireland in their first two Nations Championship Tests proving it was ¡°pretty obvious.¡±
After stunning Italy 27-10 in Tokyo a week ago, Japan took an early lead against Ireland in Newcastle on Saturday and were within six points of Andy Farrell¡¯s world number three side with 10 minutes left.
A converted try for Ireland on the hooter gave them a 36-20 win, and Farrell admitted the scoreline flattered his under-strength side.
¡°Seventy minutes it¡¯s 26-20, we¡¯re playing without our two centers so I think it¡¯s pretty obvious that the team is competitive,¡± said Jones, Japan¡¯s Australian coach, who returned after a four-game suspension for abusing match officials.
¡°They¡¯re a top-three team in the world and they do the simple things well over and over again. We had some opportunities to put ourselves in a winning position, but we weren¡¯t quite good enough.
¡°I¡¯m very proud of the effort of the boys, and yeah, I think the trajectory of the team is in the right direction and the opportunity now is to take it on to France.¡±
Japan face a major examination next weekend back on home turf against the slick Six Nations champions France, who demolished Australia 42-26 in Brisbane.
France plundered 30 unanswered second-half points with their attack proving overwhelming.
Jones¡¯s side also plays at a high tempo and their speed repeatedly stretched the Irish defense, only for handling errors to let them down.
¡°We played the whole first half on the back foot. We didn¡¯t stop their momentum in attack and when you¡¯re going backwards in defense it¡¯s hard work to get forward in attack,¡± he said.
¡°So at half-time we made some slight adjustments to how we¡¯re going to play, and I thought in the second half we were able to gain some good momentum and put ourselves back in with a chance of winning the game.¡±
Ireland, who are on a six-match win streak, travel to Auckland this week and an Eden Park cauldron for a blockbuster showdown with New Zealand, who thrashed Italy 47-17.
Farrell is expected to revert to a full-strength side after awarding four debuts against Japan.
¡°We¡¯ll dust ourselves off going into what is an unbelievably exciting week,¡± said Farrell.
¡°If you can¡¯t get excited about that, we might as well not board the plane to Auckland.¡°?
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.