Eddie Jones: 'We expect to dominate the Irish scrum'

PLOTTING: Japan head coach Eddie Jones.

Having knocked off Italy at home last weekend, a bullish Eddie Jones believes they can take advantage of Ireland’s second-string team and go back-to-back in the Nations Championship.

As Andy Farrell made sweeping changes to his side from the one that edged the Wallabies 33-31, Jones made just one change to the side that upset Italy 27-10 at home in Tokyo by bringing in Taira Main for Kippei Ishida on the left wing.

Boom playmaker Ryunosuke Ito, the 21-year-old out-half, who made his debut in last week’s win over the Six Nations side, has been retained in the No.10 jersey after his stunning start to his international career.

The playmaker, who has come straight out of the university system, joins Toulouse-based halfback Naoto Saito in the halves.

While Ryunosuke earned high praise from Italian coach Gonzalo Quesada last week, Jones didn’t want to buy into the hype around the rising playmaker and said the only thing that mattered was this week’s game.

“I'm really only interested in his performance against Ireland,” a straight-shooting Jones said.

“He's a young 10, he's going to have his ups and downs but we've got a team here who is going to support him.

“He's got great support from [lock] Warner [Dearns] and Naoto Saito at No.9 and Takuro Matsunaga at 15 and Dylan [Riley] at 13, so those guys will help look after him and we just want him to be himself.” 

Jones, however, didn’t mind turning the heat on Ireland’s scrum, saying Japan, including rising replacement loose-head prop Sojiro Otsuka, could turn the screws on their opponents at the scrum, with Farrell resting Tadhg Furlong and turning to uncapped Connacht duo Billy Bohan and Sam Illo off the bench.

“He's [Otsuka] 21 going on 41, he's a very mature player,” Jones said.

“He's got a really good head on him for a rugby player. He doesn't get too upset about mistakes, gets on with the game, and understands when he's got to keep learning.

“Particularly in the second half, we expect to dominate the Irish scrum.” That much could be true, especially after the Irish scrum struggled against Australia’s in the second-half, with Taniela Tupou going straight through Tom O’Toole, who was forced to play massive minutes following Jeremy Loughman’s concussion.

The little dig was the only provocative comment from Jones, who is now officially back in charge of the Japanese side after serving his four-match ban imposed by the Japan Rugby Football Union for abusing match officials on a tour of Australia earlier this year.

Asked about his return to the coach's box, Jones bluntly said: "I haven't really thought about it".

After being forced to play the game away from home to get the Nations Championship fixture across the line, Jones said the experience of touring could help Japan ahead of next year’s World Cup.

He added that he was “really looking forward to putting in a winning performance".

"You look at the history of the games between Japan and Ireland, Japan's only won the one game, which was at the home World Cup," said Jones, who is coaching his first Test on Australian soil since abruptly departing the Wallabies following their dismal 2023 campaign.

"So this is a great opportunity for this young team to put their name in history, and that's what we want to do."

Jones said he was preparing for an assault at the breakdown.

“Ireland are a different opposition, they present different threats, they're a much more possession-based team than Italy were, so we've worked a lot on our defensive qualities, getting off the line together,” he said.

“We know they present multiple threats with their pod style of play and the game at the moment, with the quick ruck, is suiting attacking teams.” Japan is captained by Dearns, the New Zealand-born towering lock, who helped lead the Hurricanes to a drought-breaking Super Rugby title in 2026.

He is partnered in the second-row by former Australian under-20s star Harry Hockings.

Japan (15-1): Takuro Matsunaga; Kazuma Ueda, Dylan Riley, Yuya Hirose, Taira Main; Ryunosuke Ito, Naoto Saito; Jack Cornelsen, Kanji Shimokawa, Ben Gunter; Warner Dearns (c), Harry Hockings; Shuhei Takeuchi, Mamoru Harada, Takato Okabe.

Replacements: Hayate Era, Sojiro Otuska, Keijiro Tamefusa, Michael Stolberg, Michael Leitch, Tiennan Costley, Itsuki Kamimura, Sam Greene.