Japan ready for physical Koreans

Japan coach Eddie Jones said Friday he was expecting South Korea to come out firing when the two teams meet in the HSBC Asian Five Nations on Saturday.

“We’re expecting them to be very tough and very physical. We will need to be patient, work hard and control the ball and hopefully in the last 20 minutes we can play our rugby.,” he said following the captain’s run at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

However, he said his players were in far better condition than last week when they were made to work hard for a 38-0 win over Hong Kong.

“The players’ condition is much better than last week,” he said. “Last week was probably the apex of our training. The players were tired and definitely fatigued going into the game. This week they are running better and look fresher and they look like they want to play.”

Jones said he was hopeful that young wings Kenki Fukuoka and Yoshikazu Fujita would have the chance to show what they are capable of.

“I expect them to be fast. They haven’t played a lot of top-class rugby. But they have speed and enthusiasm. I want to see them with ball in hand and take on the opposition.”

Jones said the whole back line has “two World Cups in them.”

“They are starting out in their test careers and have the combination of peed, power and skill. They have the potential to be in the top 10 in the world. I would back them against some very good back lines. But it is still a development phase. Sometimes you have to wait for things to bloom.”

A bonus-point win would hand Japan its sixth straight A5N title with a game to spare.

“History shows that we struggle in Japan,” said Korea coach Park Ki Haeng. “But we have our own good base of Japan-based players in larger numbers than we have had before and our preparations have been good.”

Seven members of the Korean pack and four of the replacements all play in Japan in either the Top League of the regional corporate leagues.