Joey Carbery insists he had no other option but to kick to touch in the final play of today's shock Japan victory over Ireland.
The Munster out-half, who came on for Jack Carty for the final 20 minutes in his first action since suffering an ankle injury at the start of August, smashed the ball out of play when the bong rang out at the Ecopa Stadium.
Ireland were seven points adrift but hadn't scored for nearly an hour and, from a position behind his own posts, he felt that the chances of forcing a draw had gone.
“I suppose we were under pressure and there wasn't too much happening at the time," explained Carbery, confirming that he knew time was up.
"The ball kinda came quickly to me. I knew we were still in with a losing bonus point and I didn't see too many other options on, so I just put it out.
“I didn't hear anything from anyone else, but I suppose the ball got turned over so quickly. I haven't seen it back. At the time, I thought it was the best option.”
Asked did he not believe that Ireland could build one more attack to earn the draw, the 23-year-old replied: “I definitely think we could have but when the ball came to me and they were up in my face.
"I didn't want want to risk it with a short kick or anything like that and concede.
“I haven't looked back at it yet but at the time, I thought it was the right option.
Carbery admitted it was a "pretty tough" game to get into, given the momentum the Brave Blossoms had built in Shizuoka - but admitted Ireland's discipline wasn't what it should have been in the face of what was an onslaught at times from the hosts.
"I felt they suffocated us in attack," he said. "Their defence came up hard on the high outside and we just weren't able to adapt to that.
“Our discipline let us down as well. We were in good parts of the pitch but dropped the ball or (conceded) a penalty here and there.
“I suppose discipline killed us today. We let them impose their attacking game on us. We didn't go after them and in attack we weren't able to adapt to what they threw at us.
“I think it wasn't just Johnny (we missed). As a collective, we let ourselves down. When the going got tough, we should have come together but we didn't and lost a few moments. We need come together and try and win the next moment.”
On a personal note, he was pleased to get back on the pitch for the first time since the first warm-up against Italy, which feels like a long time ago now.
He said: "I suppose I'm delighted to be back out and playing. The ankle feels pretty good. It's really disappointing now but all we can do is taker the learnings and get the most out of it."
He insists Ireland can turn things around and still make the last eight of the tournament.
“Yeah, definitely," stated Carbery. "We can. We just need to focus on our recovery now.
"It's a five-day turnaround so we need to regroup and get as much as we can out of Russia.”
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
