Ireland 78 Japan 9

At Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Ireland duly overwhelmed Japan, although they failed to top the 100 point mark some were expecting with a 78-9 win.

Wing Denis Hickie grabbed a hat-trick as the home side ran in a total of eleven tries.

Right from the kick-off the Japanese were penalised for going over the top and Ireland's fly-half Ronan O'Gara landed the penalty goal from 30 metres after just one minute's play.

But Japan hit back almost immediately when Ireland's full-back Geordan Murphy was penalised for not releasing the ball and Keiji Hirose equalised with a penalty goal from 42 metres.

After 12 minutes play Hirose put Japan into the lead with his second penalty goal, this time from 20 metres after the Irish had been caught offside.

Murphy made amends by scoring Ireland's first try which was converted by O'Gara.  Six minutes later Ireland increased the lead when an attacking move by Keith Wood was carried on by Malcolm O'Kelly, O'Gara and Shane Horgan and scrum-half Peter Stringer was put loose to score a try beside the post which O'Gara converted.

Eight minutes before half-time Ireland's right wing Dennis Hickie ran from defence and outwitted the Japanese cover to score a superb individual try which O'Gara failed to convert.  Five minutes before the interval Ireland went over the top as a ruck after defensive dithering by Murphy and Hirose kicked his third penalty goal.

Ireland struck back almost immediately when Hickie again outwitted the defence to score Ireland's fourth try which O'Gara converted.

By the end of the third quarter Ireland had increased their lead to 57-9 by piling on 28 points.  Just after half-time left wing Tyrone Howe got in for a try.

The Irish went further ahead when centre Brian O'Driscoll ran in for two tries, before Howe again breached the Japanese defence to score his second try.

In the final quarter Ireland added three more tries scored by Peter Clohessy, Rob Henderson and Dennis Hickie, all converted by O'Gara.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood, 3 John Hayes, 4 Paddy Johns, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 Kieron Dawson, 7 Andy Ward, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 14 Tyrone Howe, 15 Geordan Murphy
Reserves:  Rob Henderson, David Humphreys, Gary Longwell
Unused:  Eric Miller, Brian O'Meara, Justin Fitzpatrick, Frankie Sheahan

Japan:  1 T. Fumihara, 2 Noboru Yasuda, 3 Naoto Nakamura, 4 Hiroyuki Tanuma, 5 Karl Todd, 6 Takeomi Ito, 7 Hiroshi Sugawara, 8 Kouichi Kubo, 9 Katsuji Ohara (c), 10 Keiji Hirose, 11 Michinori Oda, 12 Reo Kawai, 13 Hideki Nanba, 14 Patiliai Tuidraki, 15 Daisuke Ohata
Reserves:  Soshi Fuchigami, Mamoru Ito, Yasunori Watanabe
Unused:  Takashi Akatsuka, Masao Amino, Masahiko Toyoyama, Hideyuki Yoshida

Referee:  Whitehouse n.

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  Clohessy P.M.N. 1, Henderson R.A.J. 1, Hickie D.A. 3, Howe T.G. 2, O'Driscoll B. 2, Murphy G.E.A. 1, Stringer P. 1
Conv:  O'Gara R. 10
Pen K.:  O'Gara R. 1

Japan
Pen K.:  Hirose K. 3