Japan Team Announced Ahead of Ireland Match

Japan Head Coach Jamie Joseph has today announced the Brave Blossoms Team to take on Ireland this Saturday, November 6 at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. The Brave Blossoms return to Dublin to play Ireland for the second time in 2021, with Saturday’s match the first of Japan’s three match Lipovitan D 2021 European Tour.   

Captained by Pieter ‘Lappies’ Labuschagne, the match day 23 sees a strong mix of experience and exciting young players, as Japan looks to build depth across the squad ahead of Rugby World Cup 2023. France based Kotaro Matsushima, who joined the squad in Dublin has been selected at fullback, while Yu Tamura, having played off the reserves bench against Australia last month in Oita, returns to the starting line-up at number 10. The two debutants from the Wallabies match earn their second test caps, with Ben Gunter named on the side of the scrum at blindside flanker, and Dylan Riley named in the starting 15 for the first time, being selected on the right wing.

Head Coach Jamie Joseph said:

“The team is delighted to be back again in Dublin and to have another opportunity to play against a strong Irish side. We have a lot of respect for them as a team and enjoy playing at Aviva Stadium, one of the world’s great stadiums.

“The Irish have a very experienced forward pack and they’re going to look to target our set piece, both our scrum and lineout. When we’ve been successful in the past, we’ve done well with our set piece, so this will be crucial on Saturday. If we can create enough opportunities when we have the ball, then we’ve got some very exciting backs that can create, and score tries. We’re expecting the Irish to target us with a lot of contestable kicks, so we’ve selected a back three that we feel are best placed to handle that aspect of the Irish game.

“In terms of the team and our journey, we’ve got one eye on Saturday’s test match, which will be a huge challenge for us, and the other looking at different combinations. It’s still early days in terms of our World Cup preparations and only our fourth game in two years, due to the impact of the pandemic. We have some time to get ready, so we’re experimenting with positions, keeping consistency with our experienced players and giving opportunities to some of the newer guys.”