All the nerves and trepidation going into the Rugby World Cup were blown away within a sensational first half on Sunday against Scotland with three tries, all from forwards, building a platform for a comprehensive win over Scotland.
The RTÉ Coverage had a temporary commentary glitch from the stadium in Tokyo with Eddie Butler taking over commentary duties from Hugh Cahill but both he and Donal Lenihan were back within minutes and purred as Ireland went through the gears ending up with a 24 point bonus point win.
There is always a danger after a good start of getting slightly carried away and that is probably happening at water coolers and coffee stations across the country this morning.
The narrative is that with New Zealand having beaten South Africa that we are inevitably heading for a match up against the Springbok’s in the Quarter Finals on Sunday, October 20th at 11:15.
There are though another four games to navigate before that is confirmed, the first of those next Saturday against tournament hosts Japan who got the tournament underway on Friday with a win over Russia.
All the games over the opening weekend went the way of expectation, at least in terms of the betting forecasts, though that did not dim the enthusiasm for the tournament amongst fans on social media, in Japan and on TV’s at home and out and about over the weekend.
Join us tomorrow when we hope to have news of a special screening of the Ireland Russia game next week with a strong focus on the analytics behind the performance.
Image Credit: Vraig Mercer, Inpho.ie
