Ireland 35-0 Russia: Joe Schmidt's side bounce back from Rugby World Cup shock defeat to Japan
Daily MailIreland got their World Cup campaign back on a track with a bonus-point win over Russia in Kobe, but this was another worrying performance. Ireland bounced back from their shock defeat to Japan in style with a win over Russia MATCH FACTS Ireland: R Kearney ; A Conway, G Ringrose, B Aki, K Earls; J Sexton ; L McGrath; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan ; T Beirne, J Kleyn ; R Ruddock, P O’Mahony, J Murphy Replacement not used: C Murray Russia: V Artemyev ; G Davydov, I Galinovskiy, K Golosnitskiy, D Simplikevich; R Gaisin, D Perov; A Polivalov, E Matveev, K Gotovtsev; A Garbuzov, B Fedotko; A Sychev, T Gadzhiev, Vi Gresev Yellow card: Fedotko, Ostrikov Referee: Jerome Garces Attendance: 28, 856 That shock loss to Japan five days ago exposed frailties in this current crop and you get the feeling the likes of New Zealand and South Africa will be eyeing up them up in a few weeks’ time. Rob Kearney of Ireland scores his team's first try during the Group A match against Russia The Russians showed great spirt and tenacity in the defensive duties against Japan and Samoa. There was some hesitancy in Ireland’s ranks when Kearney showed some uncharacteristic hesitancy under an aerial bomb from Russia No10 Ramil Gaisin, leading to a moment of chaos near Ireland’s try-line. Ireland continued to hunt for tries and would have had a third only for Sexton’s looping pass to Andrew Conway to be called forward The pressure was telling with Russia lock Bogdan Fedotko sent to the sin-bin for hands in the ruck.