Carbery: Ireland let themselves down

Joey Carbery admitted Ireland “let ourselves down” as they succumbed to one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history, losing 19-12 to hosts Japan on Saturday.

Fly-half Carbery, 23, was a second-half replacement for starting number 10 Jack Carty as he made his first appearance in the tournament having injured an ankle against Italy seven weeks earlier. Yet he could do little to help prevent a surging Japanese side stamp their authority on this Pool A game and win their second game in a row to top the table and move closer to a first quarter-final appearance.

Munster star Carbery was left to rue poor discipline that offered up four penalties and 12 points to Japan fly-half Yo Tamura while he said Ireland were “suffocated” in attack having taking a 12-3 lead through two tries, one converted, from Garry Ringrose and Rob Kearney.

“It was pretty tough,” Carbery said. “I felt they suffocated us in attack. Their defence came up hard on the high outside and we just weren't able to adapt to that.

“Our discipline let us down as well. We were in good parts of the pitch but dropped the ball or (conceded) a penalty here and there.

“I suppose discipline killed us today. We let them impose their attacking game on us. We didn't go after them and in attack we weren't able to adapt to what they threw at us.”

“As a collective, we let ourselves down. When the going got tough, we should have come together but we didn't and lost a few moments. We need to come together and try and win the next moment.”

The next moment now comes on Thursday when Ireland meet pool minnows Russia in Kobe needing a bonus-point victory to get their quarter-final bid back on track. Asked if Ireland could turn things around, Carbery replied: “Yeah, definitely. We can. We just need to focus on our recovery now.

“It's a five-day turnaround so we need to regroup and get as much as we can out of Russia.”

Carbery also defended his decision to kick the ball out from his own in-goal area and end the game, settling for a losing bonus point, rather than try to manoeuvre his team the length of the field in an attempt to salvage a draw with a converted try.

“I suppose we were under pressure and there wasn't too much happening at the time. The ball kinda came quickly to me. I knew we were still in with a losing bonus point and I didn't see too many other options on, so I just put it out.

“I definitely think we could have (gone the length of the pitch) but when the ball came to me and they were up in my face, I didn't want to risk it with a short kick or anything like that and concede.

“I haven't looked back at it yet but at the time, I thought it was the right option.”