Japan made illegal tactic claim about Ireland star as teams prepare to face off

Ireland and Japan will face off in the first of five internationals this Saturday, with both sides preparing for a massive game in Dublin.

Japan and Ireland meet in Dublin this weekend for their first international clash in four years. This marks Andy Farrell’s second autumn fixture, following the New Zealand encounter in Chicago.

Their previous meeting saw Ireland dominate 60-5. Yet the fixture holds significance for one of rugby’s greatest World Cup shocks – Japan’s sole victory over Ireland came on home soil during the 2019 tournament. Tension emerged ahead of that game six years ago after Japanese tighthead prop Yusuke Kizu accused Cian Healy of illegal scrummaging techniques.

Kizu claimed Healy angles inwards during scrums, which breaches regulations. Props must drive straight forward, with any lateral movement risking a collapse.

“Their loosehead prop steps out, so they try to attack from the side, that’s my impression of their scrum,” said Kizu.

READ MORE: England ace has accepted he might never get another cap due to ‘world class’ competitionREAD MORE: Craig Casey admits he’s “still haunted” by Chicago cameo as Ireland star vows to be No.1

“Ireland’s forwards really attack close to the rucks so we need to have double collisions to stop their momentum and we need to execute our system for us to achieve that.

“It was a positive tight-five review from the Russia game in that our defence really came up hard and we were able to force them back.”

Despite these claims, Japan’s scrum coach at the time, Shin Hasegawa, said he admires the Irish scrum.

“We need to nullify their strong loosehead and tighthead, so we don’t let them scrum at 100 per cent,” said Hasegawa.

“I’ve loved their scrum for a long time, so we really need to think about how we counter them and how we talk and coordinate with the players.

“We feel confident in our scrum, a matter of fine-tuning, we need to be determined and committed in our scrum.

“We are worried because they are a very strong side and the more you watch them, the more you analyse them you find out they are a quality side.”

Looking ahead to Japan, Ireland legend Johnny Sexton spoke about the need for improvement after the loss to New Zealand.

“We feel we probably prepared really well over the last two weeks and we didn’t get it out there on Saturday, which is the most disappointing thing. There’s nothing worse than when you prepare properly and you have a good plan and you just don’t quite execute it,” said Sexton.

“The players have been pretty open and honest and coaches too and come in and discussed it over the last couple of days and figured out why because that’s the most important thing, we’ve got to take the learnings from it and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”