The hosts have one foot in the quarter-finals with matches against Samoa and Scotland to come and can look forward to a place in the last eight.
On the form they showed here, with wing Kenki Fukuoka scoring the crucial try on the hour, they can give both those teams sleepless nights.
But coach Jamie Joseph was intent on giving his Brave Blossoms a night on the town before looking further down the road.
“The boys will have a couple of beers tonight,” he said. “Internally there was a lot of belief around what we were doing and what we were working towards and we were able to display that today.
“The Irish team is a quality rugby side but we have been preparing for this game for a hell of a lot longer than the Irish have.
This story is from the September 29, 2019 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the September 29, 2019 edition of The Rugby Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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