Five-try win for Ireland

Ireland wrapped up an impressive June tour with another victory as they saw off Japan 35-13 at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday.

Five tries were scored by Joe Schmidt's men as Garry Ringrose, Josh van der Flier, Kieran Marmion, Rhys Ruddock and Sean Reid crossed.

Kotaro Matsushima and Akihito Yamada responded for the Brave Blossoms but they were well beaten despite a strong second-half showing.

Ireland raced out of the blocks and led 28-8 at the turnaround thanks to tries from Ringrose, Van der Flier, Marmion and captain Ruddock.  Japan's lone scorer in the first 40 was centre Matsushima as they once again struggled to live with the quality Ireland are currently possessing.

It took Ringrose just three minutes to go over when he ran under the posts, with Jackson converting easily for a 7-0 advantage in Tokyo.

That lead was doubled on 11 minutes when Van der Flier, in for Leavy on the openside this week, crossed and Jackson added the two.

Japan's supporters finally had something to cheer about soon after though when fly-half Jumpei Ogura kicked a penalty, making it 14-3.

That didn't stop Ireland from adding a third try two minutes later when scrum-half Marmion made it 21-3, which was concerning for Japan.

The hosts finally stopped the try procession on 24 minutes when Matsushima dotted down but flanker Ruddock's would hit back before the interval.

Unlike the first-half there was no score in the second stanza until 23 minutes in and it went the way of the Brave Blossoms, as dangerous wing Yamada crossed to give Japan slim hope.  But at 28-13 down they still remained over two scores down with the clock also against them.

Ireland almost crossed for a fifth try soon after when Marmion dropped the ball before grounding but it didn't matter as they held on and in fact added that fifth crossing with two minutes remaining, replacement back-row Sean Reidy going over to wrap up a deserved 35-13 victory.

The scorers:

For Japan:
Tries:  Matsushima, Yamada
Pen:  Ogura

For Ireland:
Tries:  Ringrose, Van der Flier, Marmion, Ruddock, Reidy
Cons:  Jackson 5

Japan:  15 Ryuji Noguchi, 14 Akihito Yamada, 13 Kotaro Matsushima, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Jumpei Ogura, 9 Yutaka Nagare, 8 Amanaki Mafi, 7 Shuhei Matsuhashi, 6 Michael Leitch (c), 5 Uwe Helu, 4 Luke Thompson, 3 Takuma Asahara, 2 Yusuke Niwai, 1 Shintaro Ishihara
Replacements:  16 Shota Horie, 17 Keita Inagaki, 18 Takayuki Watanabe, 19 Kotaro Yatabe, 20 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Rikiya Matsuda, 23 Ryohei Yamanaka

Ireland:  15 Andrew Conway, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Rhys Ruddock (c), 5 Devin Toner, 4 Kieran Treadwell, 3 John Ryan, 2 James Tracy, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements:  16 Niall Scannell, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 James Ryan, 20 Sean Reidy, 21 John Cooney, 22 Rory Scannell, 23 Tiernan O'Halloran

Referee:  JP Doyle (England)
Assistant Referees:  Mathieu Raynal (France), Alex Ruiz (France)
TMO:  Glenn Newman (New Zealand)