Garry Ringrose’s stats against Japan are downright frightening

There’s a man on fire in Japan.

And the Japanese don’t have a breeze of how to cool him down. They should have probably known this was coming.

By his standards, Garry Ringrose was quiet In Ireland’s first game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup against Scotland. His defence was pure textbook and he never gave an inch but the fleet-footed Leinster flyer never really got a chance to dance his way around opposition backs.

And that’s what he plays this game for. Rarely does the Blackrock man put two quiet performances back to back and he was intent on breaking the gain line from the word go here in the Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa in Fukuroi.

All the best dealing with those elusive feet. Despite Japan starting like men inspired with their running an offload game in full swing, Ireland were soon to settle into things.

Chris Farrell showed a few skilful moments and Jack Carty was orchestrating the game from ten but the majority of it was down to Ireland’s number 13. All he wanted to do was go at them and he was leaving the home side in his blistering wake straight away.

Every other man in green followed his lead. The try, his seventh in international rugby, deservedly came in the 12th minute after an exhibition in attacking rugby from Ringrose.

Indeed, with just 15 minutes played, his running stats were frightening.

• 2 line breaks
• 4 defenders beaten
• 27 metres gained
• 1 offload and 1 try
  Watch the try here, when Jack Carty picked him out with a deliciously weighted kick. Ringrose’ fetch was akin to a Gaelic footballer in their prime. This fella knows how to field them.

Now that's a try from Ireland 😍

Carty's kick – pure precision 📩

Ringrose leaps like a salmon and somehow keeps his balance 👏pic.twitter.com/Ehq3aC3FAy

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 28, 2019

By half-time, Ringrose’ stats had kept up that frightening rate.

• 5 carries
• 47 metres gained
• 4 line breaks
• 5 defenders beaten
• 2 tackles made (and two missed)

But we’ll forgive him those two, the Japanese ain’t bad with their feet either.

Ireland’s weapon will take some stopping.

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10