Ireland 50–28 Japan, 31 May 1995

Men's Rugby World Cup 1995 · Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein · 31 May 1995Head-to-head

Full-time report

IREIreland50

JPNJapan28

Ireland won by 22 points.Half-time 19–14 · Tries 7–4

Pitch map

Layers

Swipe the pitch sideways to see it full size.

Totals only: no positions in the feed

Tacklesmademissed

IRE9734

JPN5321

Kicks at goalconv.pensdrops

IRE6/71/20

JPN4/40/00

← Japan attack · Ireland attack →Hover a try for detail · dots = tackles made · dashed = penalty goal · orange = missed · squares = rucks · triangles = line breaks and defenders beaten · rings = turnovers · bars at the foot = zone counts · thin lines = kicks from hand = attacking entries and ball won per band

Territory is not in the feed for this match.
Zone counts are not in the feed for this match.
Tackle positions are not in the feed for this match.
Kick positions are not in the feed for this match.
Ruck, line break, turnover, lineout and kick-from-hand positions are not in the feed for this match.
Tries with a dashed ring have no recorded position, so they sit in the in-goal at the end that side attacked.

Tries and goal kicks as a table

Min	Team	What	Score
12′	Ireland	Try, David Corkery, converted	5–0
20′	Ireland	Try, Neil Francis, converted	12–0
26′	Ireland	Try, Simon Geoghegan, conversion missed	19–0
36′	Japan	Try, Sinali Latu, converted	19–5
39′	Japan	Try, Ko Izawa-Nakamura, converted	19–12
43′	Ireland	Try, converted	24–14
61′	Japan	Try, Seiji Hirao, converted	26–19
64′	Ireland	Try, converted	31–21
66′	Ireland	Try, Eddie Halvey, converted	38–21
73′	Japan	Try, Masanori Takura, converted	40–26
76′	Ireland	Try, Niall Hogan, converted	45–28

Sample dataTerritory shares are estimated, and tries without a recorded position are placed in the in-goal. Other positions are as logged by the match feed and approximate.

Score progression

Drag to replay the match on the pitchSwipe the chart sideways for the full match.

12′David Corkery20′Neil Francis26′Simon Geoghegan36′Sinali Latu39′Ko Izawa-Nakamura43′IRE61′Seiji Hirao64′IRE66′Eddie Halvey73′Masanori Takura76′Niall Hogan

IRE

Team stats

JPN

64%Possession36%

52Carries116

182Metres gained504

6Clean breaks12

21Defenders beaten34

46Passes176

1Offloads15

97Tackles made53

34Tackles missed21

35/37Rucks won60/69

8/10Lineouts won16/19

13/13Scrums won10/10

10/10Mauls won2/2

9Penalties conceded7

47Kicks from hand25

Goal kicking
IRE conversions 6/7, penalties 1/2 · JPN conversions 4/4, penalties 0/0. Pale segment = set piece lost.

Match statistics and event positions come from World Rugby’s public match feed, which is unofficial and not licensed for reuse; TheBreakdown reduces them to the figures shown. This feed has team statistics but no positions for this match.

Line-ups

Ireland

1Nick PopplewellProp
2Keith WoodHooker
3Paul WallaceProp
4David TweedSecond row
5Neil FrancisSecond row
6David CorkeryFlanker
7Eddie HalveyFlanker
8Paddy JohnsNumber 8
9Niall HoganScrum-half
10Paul BurkeFly-half
11Simon GeogheganWing
12Maurice FieldCentre
13Brendan MullinCentre
14Richard WallaceWing
15Conor O'SheaFull-back
16Phil DanaherBench
17Eric ElwoodBench
18Michael BradleyBench
19Anthony FoleyBench
20Gary HalpinBench
21Terry KingstonBench

Japan

Match officials

Sample data

Referee: Sample Referee
Assistant referee: Sample Assistant 1
Assistant referee: Sample Assistant 2
TMO: Sample TMO

Sample data Match officials is placeholder content: TheBreakdown has no data source for it yet, so nothing here is real.

Context

All-time, Ireland 13–1 Japan in 14 scored Tests. Full head-to-head

Ireland going in

Japan going in

Previous meeting: 9 October 1991, Ireland 32–16 Japan
Next meeting on record: 11 November 2000

Also on this day

Results to 27 September 2026. Scoring and line-ups come from World Rugby match summaries where available; older Tests may have neither.