Andy Farrell heaps praise on courageous Japan

Ireland boss Andy Farrell has been very complimentary of Japan in the wake of his side’s 8-point victory over them on Saturday afternoon. 

The Japanese continue to impress the rugby world and pushed Ireland very close with an admirable display at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland ultimately triumphed 39-31 but were panting at the final whistle. 

"There's no mixed bag from me, I'm delighted with the win," Farrell said after the game. 

"It was always going to be a tough, old challenge for our group against what I believe to be a top-class international side, so any type of win at the Aviva was always going to be a great result for us. 

"Every single game that we'll play against Japan from now on in will always be a close encounter. 

"The brand of rugby is consistent, they are unbelievably dynamic and hard to stop on the break, they've got some very dynamic, powerful and skilful athletes across the board. 

"They've not played that many games since the World Cup but if they had, I don't think 10th place in the world rankings is a true reflection of where they're at. They're a good few positions higher than that. 

"I suppose the most pleasing thing would have been it was never going to be perfect.  

"I thought we were a bit rusty, certainly in the first half that we compounded negative errors-on-errors. 

"It made the game difficult for us. It looked like they had their legs about them more than what we did. 

"Having said that, in the second half it certainly wasn't perfect again, but how we controlled the game with our set-piece and our field position, we continued to go after Japan which was the most pleasing thing. 

"We managed to stay calm, we managed to stay in control, we managed to stay next-task focused and I think that got us through in the end."