So how did Japan defeat Ireland? | The Squidge Report

-- ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 4th 2019, FULL VIDEO CREDIT TO WORLD RUGBY & RUGBY WORLD CUP LTD --
Four years ago, Japan pulled off what is commonly referred to as The Brighton Miracle. On Saturday, Japan may have done it again as they downed title contenders, Ireland. So how did they do it, and should this be considered a miracle at all?
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[@happysaffa8871]

As a south african I know how the irish feel, but I cant help but love what the japanese team have done for the game. True underdog story. Inspirational.

[@jamesscully6687]

@Fiif I'm in the exact same situation

[@nicholasmiot2721]

I think Japan is basically everyones 2nd favorite team after their home nation

[@yeowyeow1765]

Nicholas Miot hahaa no

[@joneh9483]

OH HELL YEAH. Who doesnt love a good old classic underdog story

[@joshdanao2089]

Preach, My country is NZ (therefore All Blacks) But my 2nd favorite was Japan and if the former lost I would still be happy if by chance Japan won the world cup instead

[@BouncingBallsofFire]

During RWC19, sure, but not really. Fiji are the usual fan favourites. Even Scotland are a lot of people's second team. Pretty much, if you attack like demons you'll have supporters.

[@avengery2j]

Haha true. Well that and my wife being Japanese so no choice really :p

[@endanarchy]

You're committed to the cause of hugging a random Japanese person. A true man of the world. I don't know which match gave me more of an anxiety attack: - Springboks vs Japan; or - Springboks vs Wales Mad respect for both those teams. Gave us a run for our Kruger Rands.

[@whitters1980]

I was there. In Shizuoka, in my Cherry Blossom shirt, crying like a mad man after the final whistle. It was the best game of rugby Ive ever seen....the atmosphere after the final whistle was intense...I cant describe it. The Irish were so humble as well. It was the perfect night. Thanks for bringing back those memories. x

[@fedetrex]

I love that Squidge predicted the four coaches going to semis in 7:57 . That really is a testament to his great analysis.

[@magnuspeacock5857]

It wasn't a difficult prediction to make tbh

[@RedDogLeader22]

@@magnuspeacock5857 Right? Squidge is excellent though

[@benl4862]

I am legitimately scared that Wales see Squidge's greatness and ability, and put him into a type of coaching role for them... They would outplay every single team, in my opinion

[@BlueMax109]

fucking lol

[@maxmason5042]

halfway through this comment I thought I was about to read "play him on the wing"

[@hyugo1359]

What a beautiful rugby nerd you are mate ! Thanks for the vid !

[@money4memes686]

Thank you squidge you beautiful Welshman; great analysis

[@juliankearney4838]

I was really disappointed with this match as an Irish person

[@marshycabbage]

Julian Kearney me tooo

[@juliankearney4838]

Swear I thaught we were one of the best, still are like the 5th but yeah

[@lockodonis]

Julian Kearney more like the 15th 🤣

[@finn54123]

lockodonis ok they aren’t that bad, I mean atleast they aren’t Australia

[@precision2190]

2 years later and we blew them out the ground

[@amukelanimashele314]

Would love to see a Springboks Japan analysis from the QF👀 that was a fascinating game for me

[@rabbitss11]

What were the 4 viewers who gave this the thumbs-down hoping for? It's great analysis

[@staxter6]

Hoarding letter 'R's', that's hilarious.

[@leeponzu]

A friendly reminder that the '

[@michka8347]

I'm French so I need to put the pace at .75 to understand you. Makes the video longer 😍

[@charlottescott7150]

Michka I am English and have to do the same or watch it 3 times! He talks very fast.

[@faranglao8006]

"More committed to the number 13 than Jason Vorhees!" 😂 Lmfao. Good one Squidge. 3:40

[@D4rkm00r]

As an Englander i'm shitting it for next years tour. They're going to target those games to a new scalp, at home and they're going to be relentless.

[@Brotherbear75]

You rock Squidgemeister

[@offitcock]

cheers squidge

[@BritishEnglishJapan]

@Squidge Rugby, Can you tell us if your new arrangement with World Rugby means that your videos here are demonitized? Do you need more people to support you as Patreons? If you cannot, I am sure everyone will understand; people would like to know you are getting supported for doing all you do.

[@SirLeeOldman]

As an Irish person, I had said before the match that Japan were not a team to be taken lightly and that we wouldn't walk all over them. I was also a lot elated (and of course a little disappointed) when they won. It just proves that in this beautiful sport, anything can happen, and anyone can achieve anything.

[@stevenburrow8804]

Man I miss JP Pieterson in the Springbok line-up

[@Formakiwi]

A lot has been written and speculated about why Ireland tanked last year. Given the breadth of opinion and perspectives that have been offered, it would seem the reasons are many and varied, but a few themes are constant: players past their best being picked despite failing to find form, a rigidity in their structure and tactics, a failure to move on from the winning formula of 2018, a lack of depth in key positions, etc. Some of these have been the bane of Irish coaches for decades - both Eddie O'Sullivan and Declan Kidney ran into the same problem of Ireland's lack of depth, resorting to doggedly selecting the primary playing squad even when in shoddy form, for lack of a suitable backup option - but for me, as an Irish fan, it comes down to a few key factors: Mindset: The Irish don't know how to be favorites. As a nation we are inured to defeat and humiliation, so whenever we experience any level of success it goes to our heads and we become arrogant and sloppy. From 2017-18 Ireland beat every single Tier 1 rugby nation with a combination of skill, resolution, discipline and accuracy despite our inferior playing stocks and the second-rank status of rugby in Ireland's sporting landscape. Rory Best himself has admitted that they failed to prepare properly for the first round of the 2019 Six Nations, the punishment for which was a painful thumping by England at home in Dublin. Ireland were physically dominated in that game, their usual methodical gameplan completely thrown into disarray by England's mixture of technical accuracy and crude aggression. Mentally the team never recovered from that loss, and the 50-point sequel in Twickenham during the WC warm-ups only served to further undermine their confidence. Burnout: Looking back at the autumn win over the All Blacks in 2018, now indisputably the high-water mark of Ireland's achievements in the last WC cycle, it's easy to spot the difference between the two teams; nearly every Irish player is playing the game of his life, while the AB's, tired from travelling and battered after a bruising encounter with England the previous week, look uncharacteristically slow and underpowered around the field, and generally have (by their standards) a very poor day at the office. Nevertheless, the performances by Rob Kearney, Peter O'Mahony and Johnny Sexton are all remakable in that game, and Jacob Stockdale looks like genuine first-class winger in the making. Contrast with only a few months later; O'Mahony, Sexton and Stockdale, along with Conor Murray, Dave Kearney and the entire second row in almost any combination are all misfiring, Best is a spent force both as a forward and a captain, the vaunted Tadgh Furlong is MIA and Rob Kearney is clearly past it. What happened? Who can say. Perhaps giddy over their world dominance of the past 12 months, the players all took Xmas off and hit the pints (it's conceivable), or maybe the effort involved in achieving that winning run wore them out. Perhaps simply the march of time, accumulated mileage and Ireland's miserable winters did for them, but whatever the case I think any conscientious observer would agree that too many Irish players looked tired and spent last year, and not much better this year. Likewise it appears that Joe Schmidt, having taken Ireland to #1 in the world rankings, had basically run the tank dry and could find no way to push the team onwards; the failure to evolve tactically, to keep up with their opposition physically or develop extra options in key positions all point to a coach basically out of ideas, and probably staying in post a year too long. It just happens that his last year was a World Cup year. Inadequate Conditioning: Fitness was always the traditional Achilles heel of the Northern Hemisphere rugby teams; barring very few exceptions, Southern Hemisphere teams could always rely on a good Welsh, Irish, Scottish, French or English side to compete well for the first 60mins, after which fatigue routinely led to their skill level degrading, the defensive line opening up and fitter, fleeter SH backs finding the holes to put the contest away. Over his long tenure with Wales, Warren Gatland worked very hard at improving the physical standards of the players within the Welsh ranks; Eddie Jones was characteristically caustic in his assessment of English players' conditioning and Vern Cotter achieved a good deal by forcing improvements in those standards for Scotland. Despite being vastly improved on teams of the past, Ireland have still regularly lagged behind in this area, and it remains a weak spot for them. Their inability to keep up with Japan in the game covered above mirrors their quarter-final exit against Argentina in 2015; the Japanese outpaced the Irish while the Pumas overpowered them. Again, who can say why this is; perhaps, like with the French, there's simply not enough emphasis placed on it at club level, or possibly the standard of competition they face in the Pro 14 isn't high enough to really push their limits, or maybe it's something deeper, more societal - Irish culture and social life is not typically conducive to attaining an elite athletic standard, and the climate makes any level of training that bit harder to achieve. Gatland mitigated against similar challenges by removing his squad as often as he could for training camps in remote, drier climes like Poland (in the summer), the Swiss mountains and Qatar while Jones' training sessions with England have become notorious for their brutality. There have, however, been no such efforts made within the Irish camp, and the results last year were starkly apparent. Individual Irish players like Cian Healy, Keith Earls or CJ Stander have long distinguished themselves by their condition, but too many of the squad are simply not up to a high enough standard to compete at the highest level; when Ireland's #1 prop, Tadgh Furlong, is being launched backwards in a one-on-one tackle by an English flanker (Twickenham, 2019) you can't pretend anymore that there isn't a physical disparity between the sides. There are probably other factors, like Schmidt's preference for dogged team players over mercurial try-scorers like Simon Zebo, or Ireland's eligibility rules that prevent Irish players from playing and gaining experience abroad. Some have even suggested the dead hand of Andy Farrell, anointed to take over from Schmidt at the beginning of last year, and made reference to his previous supposed supplanting of Stuart Lancaster in the English dressing room during 2015, with the attending disaster of that team's early exit from the WC. That's pure speculation, but certainly the robotic, demoralized underachievement of Ireland in 2019 is eerily reminiscent of that England side. Either way, without some pretty drastic moves within the national set-up, I'll make a prediction for the next few years: Ireland will continue to fair reasonably well in the 6 Nations, typically having the wood on Scotland and Wales, and occasionally break though against England and France (Italy are so far behind the pack they're a given at this stage), however they'll struggle for wins against the SH sides, particularly when playing away, get badly hockeyed once or twice and most likely get as far as a quarter final in the next WC - unless they face a particularly stiff pool in which case it'll be an early bath and a Ryanair flight home from Paris. In other words, business as usual as it was in the pre-Schmidt era, and a long night of the soul for Irish supporters like myself.

[@cwheeler7392]

Ringrose wasn’t a particularly happy sheep after the match

[@Skyscraper2015]

After sneezing he fell down. 😜

[@roryblake3232]

Beautiful

[@dmazingi]

Squidge is a fucking Jedi master.

[@michaeljohnston3038]

That's what I want to know

[@philoman699]

Related to a gingernut biscuit😂😂

[@Skyscraper2015]

I have picked up from Squidge that every coach who either was playing a game other than the one that they were supposed to focus on inevitably lost their match. Joe Schmidt and Eddie Jones are to name a few. I find it also fascinating that coaches who change tactics or strategies other than what they normally do to surprise or impress almost always lose. I am not saying dont have a plan B or plan C but make sure if you do that you MUST prepare for those and particularly your team since they are the ones that are going to be executing said plan. And lastly, each coach NEEDS to recognise the strengths if their team and then to play to the strength of the each team. Also the skill a team has is knowing and reading the oppositions game play style and knowing how and when to counter it. For example, NZ have really good running attacking rugby, they utilised this in various ways and it aided them in each match superbly until England countered it. England, usually use phase play and strategic kickoffs box kicks and forward momentum thus we see how them retaining possession helped them hugely. South Africa have huge strength in their scrums, lineouts and rucks, they are also really good at defense. Japan have really good expansive rugby and if they can create spaces can run circles around their opposition. Each of these teams played their brand and style of rugby which superbly suited them and it paid off each time they used it. In the NZ Eng SF1 game, NZ had to defend alot more which is still not their strongest area of rugby. This along with England refusing them possession made them question their strategy and ultimately play a style of rugby they are not used to. Hence the loss. England then capitalised and won their game as convincingly as ever a team has done. Japan had well prepared for this game against Ireland and took a few minutes to read the style of Ireland but when they knew what was expected they then countered the Irish and completely dominated them. They then went on to score and win their match. I suppose being underdogs helps in some ways if you know how to use it. And then seeing the style England used against South Africa was weird. It wasnt what they used against Aus or NZ and because Eddie hadnt quite figured SA out he had guessed it would be a breeze. From what I saw he was sort of thinking he is again playing NZ. Rassie did not change tactics extremely from SF2 to Final. He reduced box kicks but ultimately the gameplay didnt change. I am surprised at how he was clear about his tactics, 6-2 replacements, and anyone knowing SA strengths would know that to attack SA is to contest scrums, lineouts and rucks. Oddly enough, no one adopted the 40 minutes replacement strategy. Anyways, the point being SA knew their strengths and the tactics of their opposition and then played England out of the game. England had very little response. Sure Sinckler's HIA could have changed the outcome but with that logic what-ifs almost always are hindsight critics and they never change the already existing outcome. What has happened has happened and cant be changed. That said, much can be said about did happen. Each Tier 1 team is capable of knowing their own teams' strengths, game play style and using those to their advantage while being very familiar with the game style of their opposition and knowing how and when to counter it. Its when they adopt approaches foreign to them that they start losing and that is usually when they are under the cosh. Amazing rugby tournament and Well done Japan for this win.

[@bromleyareshite6555]

Proud South African

[@jj3842]

its amazing how Japan can beat Ireland

[@georgelowrie5588]

how is he not a coach

[@juliankearney4838]

Number 1

[@jackmoo8192]

I was realy disaponted

[@fiachrabermingham9143]

We not gonna talk about the ref

[@yeowyeow1765]

Jon Top I know I sound bitter but Jesus the Japanese were going to town on the offside line and beyond the ball at every ruck

[@fiachrabermingham9143]

Yeow Yeow obviously japan was good you can’t win a game without skill, however what I’m trying to say is how one sided the reffing was although the match did happen a while ago I remember Ireland being picked up for anything the ref could find giving japan opportunities as well as penalties, and when there was a high tackle or ruck from the side by Japan (and various other thing) it played on, and without all of those penalties Japan would have never gained the lead. But it’s to late now so it is what it is

[@JanSanono]

Where it all went tits up for us

[@stavrosk2067]

I love you

[@spacebiggles]

It's Shizuoka mate

[@jamescallaghan4178]

RIP Ireland

[@ARTHURCBR]

Answer: Easily.

[@darthmong7196]

I'm 1/8 Japanese if ya want a hug between world cups.

[@ciaranbrk]

We didn’t show up and I hate saying this because it sounds like sour grapes but it’s true. Gardner screwed this match up so badly even world rugby admitted and dropped him from the main ref panel. Ireland had to go through the gate at rucks but japan could come in from the side all day. That being said Japan played the more attractive rugby and Ireland didn’t have any answer to it.

[@inBODwetrust13]

Home World Cup they were always going to be gifted a game (especially with the Asian market potential and after all the money lost from England going out early in 2015). Football did it in 2002 with South Korea and rugby did it in 2019 with Japan

[@marshycabbage]

As an Irish person. I am not happy. Like if you are irish

[@wellingtonian2009]

Japans head coach and assistant coaches were ex All Blacks.

[@arianne8912]

I STAND FOR JAPAN! BECAUSE WE ASIAN HELP EACH OTHER AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER!

[@Gengar094]

You don't have to beat the All Blacks to be considered a T1 nation :P

[@lillukas7992]

I think it was easy for them

[@bnecampgangsta1622]

Japanese have a very high moral, more than the english. Germans ore some balkanese poeple would understand.

[@thetoiletinspector6878]

By scoring more points that Ireland.

[@yourmomskitchen3236]

"Entered the tournament as world #1" Lmao, okay buddy. Taking 50 against England is very #1 like. The ranking system is broken. England still #3 after finishing 2nd ? I hate England, but they deserve to be #2 after making the final.

[@jayjames4015]

First x

[@jayjames4015]

First

[@Ghillie1107]

But fuckin late

[@jaredweatherhead7446]

Ireland were rubbish at the WC, thats how. If Ireland of the last few years showed up they would have had no chance.

[@Assault.Media.]

Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, please repent

[@shamr0ck]

Nah...Japan is not T1. T1 demands that the national team is made up out of a majority of national players.

[@SquidgeRugby]

So, like Japan?

[@shamr0ck]

@@SquidgeRugby 53% I think? Argentina toiled for about 12 years producing their own domestic talent to get there. Japan need to back it up now and increase domestic pathways. When they do - we shall all tremble with fear.

[@jackdowling2598]

@@shamr0ck Technically 53% is the majority though

[@shamr0ck]

@@jackdowling2598 Fair criticism of what I said. Let me amend to strong majority.

[@Sabundy]

Um..... You do realise the players are Japanese nationals right? It seems you are talking about ethnicity. As in you mean ethnically Japanese. Thats not the same as being a national. A Japanese national is someone who is a citizen of Japan right?.... Then they predominantly are. Would you require any other country's team to be made up of a specific ethnic group to qualify as being "nationals"?

[@stuartmurphy7695]

When your 9&10 are playing 💩, wingers never used , inform players not even making the 23, i don't know how we lost 😡