■By MARK DOCHERTY

JAPAN stepped up their World Cup preparations with a win over Ireland to tie the series in Tokyo.
The visitors made the perfect start as Natasya Behan went over in the corner after an opportunistic blindside snipe by Ailsa Hughes on the four minute mark.
However, the Sakura Fifteen responded by piling pressure on the Irish line, twice being held up before Ayasa Otsuka glided through a gap to level the scores.
As a scrappy first half looked like petering out, the hosts went ahead through a well-worked scrum move, allowing Rinka Matsuda to sell a dummy and to...