Japan forced to make late change

BRIGHTON, England (Sept. 18) – Japan were forced to make a late change for their opening game at Rugby World Cup 2015 when Craig Wing pulled out with a calf injury.

The inside centre felt the muscle tighten on Thursday and admitted Friday he was not 100 percent for the opening game in Pool B against South Africa.

Eddie Jones told a packed media room following Japan’s captain’s run that Harumichi Tatekawa would start at 12 with Yu Tamura promoted to the bench.

“It’s not a big disturbance,” he said.

When asked how his side would get on against the two-time champions, Jones said, “We’ve got to win, we’ve got to find a way. It’s about being smart, and being high tempo. This is not a training run for South Africa, that’s happened before.”

“Four years ago New Zealand put out their B team (against Japan), and eight years ago Australia put out their B team. But now they have some respect.  To use cricketing parlance, we’re in the crease, and now we’ve got to score some runs.”

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to put Japan on the rugby map.”

Prop Kensuke Hatakeyama said after the training session at Brighton Community Stadium that he was “really looking forward and honoured to be playing at such a great ground.”

“The South African forwards are all big and physical in all parts of the game.  All 23 of our players need to start strong and keep going forward.”

Jones said Hatakeyama and the other tight forwards had a huge role to play.

“We’ve got a scrum that can give the Springboks trouble. Hopefully (referee Jerome Garces) doesn’t let Jannie Du Plessis run the scrum. Jannie can do a lot of talking.  If we win the scrum battle, we can put ourselves in a position to win the game.”

“Tomorrow could be a day to remember for Japanese rugby.”