'We've got that quarter-final performance out of our system' - Ireland ready to peak for All Blacks says Sexton
Johnny Sexton has questioned the “strange” negativity around Ireland’s World Cup campaign, insisting Joe Schmidt’s men are ready to peak for the All Blacks.
British and Irish Lions fly-half Sexton insisted Ireland always knew Japan’s quality ahead of their 19-12 Pool A loss to the tournament hosts.
Japan beat Scotland 28-21 on Sunday to tee up a quarter-final clash with South Africa, handing Ireland a last-eight battle with back-to-back world champions New Zealand in Tokyo on Saturday.
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Leinster star Sexton hopes Ireland have already shaken their typical World Cup quarter-final performance “out of our system” with that surprise loss to Japan – and now called on his side to produce one of their best-ever performances against the All Blacks.
“We’ve been building pretty well apart from that poor 60 minutes against Japan; everything else has pretty much gone to plan,” said Sexton.
“There’s been some negativity around us and we’d feel that’s been pretty strange.
“But we’re really confident in how we’re building. We’d like to be playing a bit better in some regards at times, but hopefully, we can put that performance out there on Saturday.
“We’re very self-critical in terms of our performances and obviously after the Japan game, we would have liked to have done things differently.
“But we knew how good a team Japan were, so we always knew that would happen if we didn’t play well, and it did happen.
“So I think looking at the Scotland game last night, Japan were excellent again. They have been through the whole tournament.
“They were clinical with the ball, every time Scotland gave them the ball they seemed to hold it for 20 or 30 phases.
“It was pretty impressive, so I’m sure they will go on and really worry South Africa.”
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Ireland’s failure to launch past a World Cup quarter-final has become a millstone around the team’s neck.
Now Kiwi boss Schmidt has the chance for another history-making achievement, should he guide Ireland past his homeland and into a maiden World Cup semi-final.
Ireland lost 22-10 to Wales in the 2011 quarter-finals, before Schmidt’s injury-ravaged men were thumped 43-20 by Argentina in Cardiff four years ago.
Sexton hopes Ireland’s defeat to Japan will prove their main aberration for this competition then, especially as Schmidt’s side this time approach the knockout phases with a clean bill of health.
In 2015, Ireland faced Argentina without Sexton, captain Paul O’Connell, back-row stalwarts Sean O’Brien and Peter O’Mahony – and further backline talents Jared Payne and Tommy Bowe.
Bundee Aki faces a disciplinary hearing on Monday night and could be ruled out for the remainder of the tournament through suspension after his red card against Samoa.
But beyond that Ireland have everyone battling for selection, leaving Sexton hopeful of yet more history this weekend.
“I’m hoping that having lost a pool game that we’ve got that quarter-final performance out of our system that we’ve had in other tournaments,” said Sexton.
“The way we played against Japan was probably very similar to the way we played against Wales and Argentina in the last two tournaments.
“The difference now is we’re not favourites going into this quarter-final whereas we were in the last two.
“So we’re building nicely, we haven’t hit our best performance yet and we need to get close to that to get the right result on Saturday.
“It makes a big difference having everyone fit, even just for the quality of training.
“I remember that Argentina week. We had guys like (analyst) Vinny (Hammond) running against us, and it wasn’t the best quality opposition, physically and personally!
“But this week we have everyone fit, we’ve two good sides for training, so we can make the most of it.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments