'We need to be better': Ireland eye further improvement despite Japan win

Ireland held on to a 31-24 victory over Japan in the WXV Global Series at Dexcom Stadium in Galway.

Two tries each from player of the match Brittany Hogan and Ireland’s new all-time women’s try scorer Béibhinn Parsons, as well as a score from Aoife Dalton, saw Scott Bemand’s side bounce back from their 40-36 defeat by the USA Women’s Eagles last week.

The Sakura Fifteen fought hard and dotted down for four tries, with Moe Nagaoka crashing over twice, Nijiho Nagata registered her team’s third from a maul and 18-year-old Nami Asari got over the whitewash in the closing stages.

But Ireland had done enough to put the nerve-wracking, and at points shaky encounter, to bed and secure their first win of WXV Global Series 2026.

Speaking after the final whistle, player of the match Brittany Hogan told TG4: “I’m really proud of the girls. We knew we had to dig in deep as that Japanese team never stop.

“They’re so, so well drilled and it was a great game out there. We need to come in on ourselves and have more pride in our try line.

“We can’t be too soft in our maul defence, and we need to be better on that next week.

“You could see it was a tale of two halves. We had the wind with us in the first half, and we were against it in the second, so we just had to try and play with it.

“It’s hard here in the Dexcom but it’s a great crowd, it’s a great place and we’ve got really good memories here.”

Ireland captain Erin King, who was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes just before half time for going off her feet, echoed the sentiment of her teammate: “I’m very, very proud of the girls. They stuck it in there, fought until the very end and showed what we’re all about.

“Last week asked questions of us and I think we answered them today.

“We definitely had some frustrations and it was tough. We had a really good training week and we showed out there in parts what we could do but also fair play to Japan, they really brought it to us and it was no easy feat.

“At half time, we talked about playing the conditions and doing us. We don’t look for perfection, but we look to do us to the best of our ability.”

The captain continued with a chuckle, “I made it a little bit tougher taking my 10 minutes in the sin bin, so I’ll apologise to the girls for that one!

“They showed the togetherness in the squad and a big congratulations to Brittany [Hogan] for player of the match and Beth [Buttimer] for getting her first cap. Really well deserved to both of them.”

Scott Bemand, Ireland head coach, added a final note, “I am delighted for the girls.

“We worked our way through the game. The first half, the scoreboard should have looked more favourable for us. There is lots to work on as always.

“I thought we were better today than last week, so we just have to continue to get better as quickly as we can,” he concluded with the challenge of next week already on his mind.

The fifth-ranked team in the world will have plenty to polish up on before they face Japan again in six days time in a fixture that sits outside of the WXV Global Series window. For now Ireland will be mostly happy after securing a win in Galway.