Sean Dancer frustrated as Ireland edged out by Japan

Ireland 1-2 Japan

Ireland completed their World Cup preparations with a loss at the hands of Japan in the fourth fixture of this week's SoftCo Series at Belfield.

Síofra O'Brien’s first international strike from close range was outdone by efforts from Mai Toriyama in the first minute and a spectacular winner from Yuri Nagai in a crackling first half.

Like the majority of the other meetings this week, Ireland held the sway for much of the territorial and possession elements but Japan won the clinches in either circle with a serious defensive intensity.

For coach Sean Dancer, he was frustrated his young side could not eke out cleaner chances to make the difference in front of a capacity home crowd.

"We just didn’t have enough consistency and do the things we needed to do well enough," he said, reflecting on the uncapped series.

"They hurt us with their outletting and we didn’t control that well enough. We are progressing with our attacking game but we need to put more chances away.

"It’s about us taking the lessons. Japan defend really well but we need to be better as an attacking group."

It concludes a strange phase for Ireland, meeting Japan eight times in a three-week period, four times in Okayama, four in Dublin.

FULLTIME IRL ☘️ 1-2