Jones wants Japan to lift their performance

HONG KONG (April 26) – Japan coach Eddie Jones said Friday he was hoping his side could build on last week’s record 121-0 win over the Philippines when they take on Hong Kong on Saturday in Round 2 of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations.

“We respect Hong Kong greatly and they are always well coached by Leigh Jones. But we want to play better than we did against the Philippines. The players are competing for places and I want them to raise their level of performance,” he said following the captain’s run at the Hong Kong Football Club.

His Hong Kong counterpart admitted his side were coming into the game as underdogs.

“You don’t have to be a rugby pundit to know that putting amateurs against professionals is a tough ask,” Leigh Jones said. “We will be tested against the best team in Asia.”

Despite the rain, which at times has been torrential since the team arrived Thursday, Eddie Jones was hopeful his team could still play a running game, joking that the artificial pitch meant “at least we don’t have to play in mud” up past our ankles.

“We are not sure what the conditions will be like to tomorrow but we have trained well this week. We expect it will be physical which is what we want. Hopefully we can do the hard yards in the first half and then play some rugby in the second half.”

Japan captain Toshiaki Hirose was also hopeful the Brave Blossoms could put on a good show.

“We didn’t play well in the second half when we played here two years ago,” he said referring to a game that Japan won 45-22. “So I hope we can play for the full 80 minutes and allow people to enjoy watching the Japanese style.”