Mixed day for Japan as Fiji win Tokyo 7s
TOKYO (March 23) – Japan produced one of the best displays of sevens they have ever produced on Day 2 of the Tokyo 7s, beating Samoa 42-12 in the quarterfinals of the Bowl.
Unfortunately they were unable to repeat the performance a few hours later as they were knocked out of Round 6 of the HSBC Sevens World Series by Wales in sudden death extra-time.
“We had the chance to win,” rued coach Tomohiro Segawa. “It all came down to us losing concentration.”
Fiji won a thrilling final beating South Africa 33-26 in a game that saw the lead change several times.
England edged New Zealand 21-12 to claim third spot, Australia beat the United States 17-12 to win the Plate, Wales topped Scotland 28 -21 to bag the Bowl, while Argentina hammered Samoa 28-0 to claim the Shield.
Kicking off their first game at 9.22 a.m, Japan came out of the blocks firing, stunning the 2009-10 series champions with four unanswered tries in the first half.
Lote Tuqiri crossed twice with Masaki Watanabe and Lomano Lemeki also touching down and Kosuke Hashino adding four conversions to make it 28-0.
The second half was a more even affair with Samoa crossing twice and Kenki Fukuoka grabbing a brace with Hashino and Katsuyuki Sakai adding the extras as Japan picked up their first win over a core team since 2006.
“It was a good victory, an awesome victory,” said Tuqiri. “It’s good to be back scoring tries and I am very happy for the team.”
Sadly they were unable to repeat the feat a few hours later, despite a good start that saw them lead 14-0, thanks to tries by Lemeki and Hashino, who added two conversions.
An intercept try followed by a converted try straight from the restart saw Wales pull to within two, before Ross Jones added a third try to make it 19-14.
With the hooter having sounded, Japan had one last chance to salvage the game and Lemeki scored from a quick penalty giving Sakai a chance to win the game in regular time. But his conversion fell short and the teams headed into extra-time.
Despite having a man in the sin bin, it was Wales who finished stronger and Alex Webber’s second try of the game made it 24-19 and ended Japan’s weekend.
“We created enough chances,” rued Yoshikazu Fujita. “But hopefully we can use this experience and be successful in Hong Kong,” next week when Japan hopes to win the qualifying tournament and earn the one automatic spot on next year’s circuit.