Japan vs Ireland Kick-off 8.10pm local time/11.10am Irish time

[big ginger 8]

Ireland (v Japan):​

15. Jamie Osborne (Naas/Leinster)(16)
14. Jimmy O’Brien (Naas/Leinster)(12)
13. Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster)(84)
12. Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(29)
11. Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster)(42)
10. Ciaran Frawley (UCD/Leinster)(13)
9. Craig Casey (Shannon/Munster)(28)

1. Tom O’Toole (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(22)
2. Rónan Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster)(49)
3. Thomas Clarkson (Blackrock College/Leinster)(14)
4. Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster)(71)(captain)
5. James Ryan (UCD/Leinster)(81)
6. Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster)(60)
7. Nick Timoney (Queen’s University/Ulster)(12)
8. Sean Jansen (Connacht)*

Replacements:

16. Tom Stewart (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(5)
17. Billy Bohan (Corinthians/Connacht)*
18. Sam Illo (Buccaneers/Connacht)*
19. Cormac Izuchukwu (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(4)
20. Bryn Ward (Ballynahinch/Ulster)*
21. Nathan Doak (Banbridge/Ulster)(1)
22. Harry Byrne (Lansdowne/Leinster)(4)
23. Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht)(70).

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Half backs on the bench are better.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Arguably the least interesting fixture of the day. Mind you, the weather can often be a bit of an equaliser out there and Japan will be confident from their win last week. Ireland will win obviously but hoping Japan can keep the loss inside 15 points. A tad optimistic but as I say, hot and sticky out there.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Arguably the least interesting fixture of the day. Mind you, the weather can often be a bit of an equaliser out there and Japan will be confident from their win last week. Ireland will win obviously but hoping Japan can keep the loss inside 15 points. A tad optimistic but as I say, hot and sticky out there.

It's in Oz. Mid teens is the forecast.

 

[big ginger 8]

Eddie is on rusty form after his ban, only thing of note he's said is expecting to dominate the scrum in the second half.

 

[Welsh Exile]

It's in Oz. Mid teens is the forecast.

Ah. Didn’t realise that.

Harsh on Japan. It’s a bit of a joke this competition

 

[Demfad]

Ah. Didn’t realise that.

Harsh on Japan. It’s a bit of a joke this competition

Japan are invitees of the competition not members. They are doing well out of it. If the match was in Japan it would mean 66 hrs of flying time around these three matches and Ireland taking a hiding from NZ. I think we can safely say that in two years the team in that mid match slot won't be flying to Japan either. If people want this tournament to exist then compromise.
If England had to play Fiji in Suva then that would be between 25-30 hours on commercial flights. Not feasable so Fiji are playing in GB.
EJ knows all this presumable so is talking through his backside.

 

[big ginger 8]

It is still a pain for the Japanese, and it's kind of worked out poorly for them beyond the obvious.

Ireland wanted to play the game in Melbourne, which has a bigger stadium and would have attracted a decent crowd due to the amount of Irish there. Japan rejected this amd chose Newcastle instead as they will be playing their WC opener there, which is fair enough. But due to the timing of the game and proximity to Sydney it looks like the crowd will only be in the region of 8k. With Japan as the home team they're missing out on a decent amount of gate receipts.

It's not a particularly fair situation but in fairness I'm not sure rugby is in a position to be particularly fair.

 

[Brown Bottle]

Japan are invitees of the competition not members. They are doing well out of it. If the match was in Japan it would mean 66 hrs of flying time around these three matches and Ireland taking a hiding from NZ. I think we can safely say that in two years the team in that mid match slot won't be flying to Japan either. If people want this tournament to exist then compromise.
If England had to play Fiji in Suva then that would be between 25-30 hours on commercial flights. Not feasable so Fiji are playing in GB.
EJ knows all this presumable so is talking through his backside.

Fiji don't have a big enough ground. They're hoping to make enough money out of this to build a new stadium in Suva.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Japan are invitees of the competition not members. They are doing well out of it. If the match was in Japan it would mean 66 hrs of flying time around these three matches and Ireland taking a hiding from NZ. I think we can safely say that in two years the team in that mid match slot won't be flying to Japan either. If people want this tournament to exist then compromise.
If England had to play Fiji in Suva then that would be between 25-30 hours on commercial flights. Not feasable so Fiji are playing in GB.
EJ knows all this presumable so is talking through his backside.

Don't think it was a criticism of Ireland not travelling.

This comp is farcical really and essentially a way to prop up the SH nations who haven't had a very profitable yearly competition, like Europe does, for a long time to the point they've abandoned it this year.

It's a competition:

With too much travel;
That disadvantages weaker nations (regardless of the valid justifications);
Without promotion / relegation opportunities; and
With an imperfect format for crowning the best team(s) without everyone playing against each other and a significant "luck of the draw" aspect to it.

And presumably others could identify further issues as they're off the top of my head.

I'm not against it, last Saturday was brilliant entertainment and I'm going to visit a friend and attend the Saturday of finals weekend in Twickenham but I'm not sure I'm very comfortable with it as a commercial decision for rugby. We already have a broken competition format in the Champions Cup and its interest is far below where it was at it's peak*.

If this tournament follows suit and is less appealing to the old tours, it's letting a malaise set into international rugby which hasn't happened before. Attendances like Wales and Argentina had this weekend are rare and worrying for international rugby.

*I genuinely struggle to think of another sport that has managed to ruin one of their best products like that - maybe ones on their deathbed like Snooker have made some bad moves - but rugby is terribly governed and has a history of poor moves.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Japan are invitees of the competition not members. They are doing well out of it. If the match was in Japan it would mean 66 hrs of flying time around these three matches and Ireland taking a hiding from NZ. I think we can safely say that in two years the team in that mid match slot won't be flying to Japan either. If people want this tournament to exist then compromise.
If England had to play Fiji in Suva then that would be between 25-30 hours on commercial flights. Not feasable so Fiji are playing in GB.
EJ knows all this presumable so is talking through his backside.

That’s why I think it’s a bit of a joke though (the travel)

I appreciate the money men want this and you’re quite right some compromise should be made but, I dunno, I kinda just wish this wasn’t happening. Games have been good though to be fair.

 

[Demfad]

That’s why I think it’s a bit of a joke though (the travel)

I appreciate the money men want this and you’re quite right some compromise should be made but, I dunno, I kinda just wish this wasn’t happening. Games have been good though to be fair.

The travel is a joke but the main issue for me was the sports washing by involving Qatar. Ireland and France objected but that only applies for this version. From a Welsh perspective you are getting equal access to all the main global teams which must be a plus from that POV.
The secondary competition is also good and hopefully with promotion and relegation this tournament will be a catalyst for further reform.

 

[Demfad]

Don't think it was a criticism of Ireland not travelling.

This comp is farcical really and essentially a way to prop up the SH nations who haven't had a very profitable yearly competition, like Europe does, for a long time to the point they've abandoned it this year.

It's a competition:

With too much travel;
That disadvantages weaker nations (regardless of the valid justifications);
Without promotion / relegation opportunities; and
With an imperfect format for crowning the best team(s) without everyone playing against each other and a significant "luck of the draw" aspect to it.

And presumably others could identify further issues as they're off the top of my head.

I'm not against it, last Saturday was brilliant entertainment and I'm going to visit a friend and attend the Saturday of finals weekend in Twickenham but I'm not sure I'm very comfortable with it as a commercial decision for rugby. We already have a broken competition format in the Champions Cup and its interest is far below where it was at it's peak*.

If this tournament follows suit and is less appealing to the old tours, it's letting a malaise set into international rugby which hasn't happened before. Attendances like Wales and Argentina had this weekend are rare and worrying for international rugby.

*I genuinely struggle to think of another sport that has managed to ruin one of their best products like that - maybe ones on their deathbed like Snooker have made some bad moves - but rugby is terribly governed and has a history of poor moves.

But the tournament will likely have promotion and relegation post 2031. Vulnerable teams were always going to object unless they were given time to improve.
The weaker teams now get guaranteed and equal access to all the top teams every two years. Otherwise the really big tours would have remained with the top 5.
The luck of the draw aspect applies biannually to the 6 nations. E.g. for Ireland the even years where we play France/England away are significantly harder than the odd years.
Clearly the teams have bought into it. France have turned up because (at the least) the value the extra meaning in the Autumn internationals: they want to be contenders at that point. Attendance for the Fiji and Argentina matches is worrying but is that related to the NC?
In the Autumn you will have NZ and SA trying to outdo each other, and Fra, Eng, Ire similarly doing so.
IMO its a case of build it and they will come. If the players and supporters buy into it, then its already more than just adding a trophy to a load of test matches.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

But the tournament will likely have promotion and relegation post 2031. Vulnerable teams were always going to object unless they were given time to improve.
The weaker teams now get guaranteed and equal access to all the top teams every two years. Otherwise the really big tours would have remained with the top 5.
The luck of the draw aspect applies biannually to the 6 nations. E.g. for Ireland the even years where we play France/England away are significantly harder than the odd years.
Clearly the teams have bought into it. France have turned up because (at the least) the value the extra meaning in the Autumn internationals: they want to be contenders at that point. Attendance for the Fiji and Argentina matches is worrying but is that related to the NC?
In the Autumn you will have NZ and SA trying to outdo each other, and Fra, Eng, Ire similarly doing so.
IMO its a case of build it and they will come. If the players and supporters buy into it, then its already more than just adding a trophy to a load of test matches.

I'll believe promotion/relegation when I see it. There's been no promises and knocking out a market like Japan for Georgia or similar hasn't been World Rugby's MO - Call me a cynic but they've given themselves a buffer to gamble on Spain being the team likely to get promoted otherwise they'll scrap it.

The 6 nations is flawed - I've always said the only way to truly win one is a grand slam or the rare occasion only one team reaches 4 wins. It works as a product, no guarantee this will.

Week 1 is too early to suggest the competition has been bought into, season 1 isn't even enough. It'll be awhile before we can really comment on that imo.

Argentina had full houses for its 2022 tour to Scotland - smaller stadia but at most only one smaller attendance.

The Welsh attendance is 100% due to the NC, that match does not happen in Wales otherwise.

Again, I'm not against it, I hope it works but build it and they'll come hasn't worked for rugby much in recent years. The Rugby Championship, Champions Cup and Super Rugby are all looking far worse than they did 10 years ago and WR haven't got a great record of making good decisions.

 

[Quel Carreleur]

Wait - why the hell is this being played in Australia?

I understand Fiji wanting to play in the UK, where the stadia are bigger and they're likely to make more money - but that's not an issue for Japan - who've travelled way further as well as giving up home advantage

 

[Welsh Exile]

The Mrs has taken the kids out for a few hours. Going to actually watch a live game of rugby in the morning. Nice.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Sheeeeeeeeeeeet

 

[Welsh Exile]

Farrell won’t be happy with that.

 

[Gavin]

Stop the clock...

 

[big ginger 8]

Quinlan alternating between saying Deans and Dearns is more annoying than just being consistently wrong.

 

[Welsh Exile]

It’s funny how the Japanese kicker is looking at a **** off massive sign saying “there’a no place like home” whilst playing a home game in Australia. Good trolling.

 

[AngloScotsHybrid]

Ronan Kelleher is such a bad lineout thrower its amazing he got selected for a Lions tour.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I’d hook Frawley for that kick.

 

[big ginger 8]

Took a while to come back for that.

Don't think I've seen us run a move like that for a good while. Good decision with someone like McCloskey.

Casey and Frawley have been poor.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

That's as intentional a deliberate knock on as you'll ever see.... except he missed it!

Was surprised they missed it live because it looked so blatant, but then TMO shows it sail past his slap and just be knocked on by Ireland

 

[Groundhog]

Classic Irish performance when we make a few changes and a few lads try too hard. Think Casey has mad a few boo boos, the last pass shouldn’t have gone to Henshaw. Kelleher and in particular Frawley have also been pretty bad, Frawleys decision making at this level looks a second too slow.

McCloskey and the back row all solid.

Think if we pull more than a score clear we will kick on

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Sean Jansen always impressed me at Leicester so glad he has taken his chances well in Ireland

 

[big ginger 8]

Sean Jansen always impressed me at Leicester so glad he has taken his chances well in Ireland

Brings a good physical edge. Plenty of competition so not sure how many caps he'll get but great option to have.

 

[big ginger 8]

Think Japan were obviously talking to Piardi before the game about TOT he's been on him a lot about staying up.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Thought that looked like obstruction to me in the build up.