ANDY FARRELL HAILED his Ireland team’s composure in attack and their defensive effort after a resounding 60-5 victory over Japan.
Ireland scored nine tries and limited the visitors to just one score on a very pleasing day for the head coach.
Johnny Sexton marked his 100th Ireland cap in style by scoring a try and steering their impressive attack, and while Farrell was delighted for his captain, he said this performance was notable for several other Irish players too.
“There were three special people, not just Johnny and his 100th cap,” Farrell told RTÉ. “Tadhg Furlong won his 50th, which we think is pretty special, and Dan Sheehan got his first cap. Plenty of guys played in the last couple of years and have not been able to play in front of their families. I’m so pleased for Dan, I think he did really well.
“We’re happy that the performance matched the occasion. It was nice to see some things coming to fruition. I thought when we were calm in attack, we were clinical. Sometimes we got ahead of ourselves.
“Two things stand out. Our defence was outstanding. We didn’t have to do much but there was a reason for that, we put pressure on Japan and they spilled the ball a bit. And our set-piece got on top of them.”
Jack Conan was player of the match for Ireland and was thrilled with how they sparked in attack in front of a crowd of more than 40,000 in Dublin.
“It was unbelievable, it was great to have the fans back,” said Conan. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard noise as loud as when Johnny went over in the corner.
“I think we were just backing the skillset we have and the ability of the players the coaches picked. It’s pretty evident we trusted ourselves playing into holes and to space. It worked really well.”
Ireland now turn their attention towards the visit of the All Blacks here to Dublin next weekend.
“It’s onwards and upwards,” said Conan. “It’s a good start, we’ll have a look during the week and fix some things that need to be fixed and then look to next week.”
It will be intriguing to see if Farrell considers changes after this excellent win against Japan.
“We’ll let the dust settles, see how people turn up and how they train as well,” said Farrell.
“We certainly should have a bounce, look after ourselves, dust ourselves down, celebrate those three guys with a quiet beer, and make sure we turn up for work on Monday.”
