Quote Originally Posted by Optimistic Nick View Post
He ****ed up. If they wanted the losing BP they would have kicked it out before taking the last tackle. And when a player kicks the ball out to end the game, they would never boot it so far up field and risk it staying in. They never chase after it either. The lad just played the situation poorly. Nothing about it makes sense. I can only think that he thought that he was aiming to make asuch ground as possible and thought that there was still enough time to compete for a line out.
According to people talking about the game I was just listening to on the radio, if Ireland get maximum point wins against Russia and Samoa, they'll win the group and, in all likelihood, avoid the All Blacks in the quarter final, but they also said that it was sad to see them thinking in terms of accepting a losing bonus point, rather than looking for the draw.

Mind you, the way the two sides performed in the last hour of the match made another Japanese try more likely if Ireland had tried running from behind their own line - it was no fluke result, the better side won.