Sakura Fifteen Team Announced for Historic Black Ferns Test Match

Japan Head Coach Lesley McKenzie has today named the Sakura Fifteen team to take on the Black Ferns, this Saturday, September 24 at Eden Park in Auckland. This historic match, the first ever between the two sides, will be the final warm-up for both teams as they make their final preparations for Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, which kicks off on October 8.

Kicking off at 16:30 New Zealand local time, 13:30 Japan Standard Time, the match will be played ahead of the second Bledisloe Cup match between the All Blacks and the Wallabies, as part of the Lipovitan D Rugby Championship 2022.

The Sakura Fifteen will be looking to keep their positive momentum following their empathic 29-10 win over Ireland in Tokyo last month. While the team and coaching staff are relishing the opportunity to take on the Black Ferns as part of their World Cup preparations, it will be a huge challenge to face World Rugby’s number two ranked side at their Eden Park fortress and the spiritual home of New Zealand rugby.  

Captained by Saki Minami in her 26^th test at loose-head prop, the team selection draws on some of the Sakura Fifteen’s most experienced players. Back-row forward Seina Saito, Japan’s most capped player will pack down at blindside for her 32^nd test cap. She is joined by the experienced Makoto Lavemai (17 caps) at tight-head prop and Maki Takano (16 caps) in the second row, while backrow-forward Iroha Nagata (15 caps) and scrumhalf Moe Tsukui (19 caps) have been named on the reserves bench.

The exiting halves pairing of livewire scrumhalf Megumi Abe (10 caps) and impressive fly-half Ayasa Otsuka (9 caps) continues, with the connection between the two players growing stronger with every match. Try scoring, speed-machine Rinka Matsuda (5 caps) moves from fullback to the left-wing, while Sachiko Kato (10 caps), who spent the last two seasons playing in England for the Exeter Chiefs, has been named on the bench as front-row reserve.

Sakura Fifteen Assistant Coach, Louise Dalgliesh commented:

“The Black Ferns will offer a different set of challenges in their attack, giving us a good test of our defensive systems, both as a team and as individuals, in terms of our decision making, our ability to solve problems and how we react to the challenges they bring.”

Ultimately it will be our ability in defence that will win us the game. We can challenge the Black Ferns in a number of areas, but if we allow them to gain momentum, allow some of their bigger, stronger players into the game, we know this will create problems. If we can stop their momentum and be effective in our initial defence, we can definitely challenge them and take them on”.

Saturday’s match will be telecast live in Japan from 13:15 JST via WOWOW On-Demand.

Following the match against the Black Ferns, the Sakura Fifteen kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign against Canada on October 9, followed by the USA on October 15. They play their third and final Pool B match against Italy on October 23.

Team List:

No.	Name	Club	cm	kg	D・O・B	caps
1	Saki MINAMI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	163	72	1995/11/18	25
2	Nijiho NAGATA	International Budo Univ.	162	78	2000/12/6	8
3	Makoto LAVEMAI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	163	73	1997/7/2	17
4	Yuna SATO	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	170	75	1998/9/11	6
5	Maki TAKANO	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	170	76	1995/8/17	16
6	Seina SAITO	MIE PEARLS	164	73	1992/5/30	31
7	Kyoko HOSOKAWA	MIE PEARLS	164	71	1999/7/8	7
8	Ayano NAGAI	YOKOHAMA TKM	168	84	1997/10/14	10
9	Megumi ABE	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	147	53	1998/4/28	10
10	Ayasa OTSUKA	RKU GRACE	163	65	1999/5/5	9
11	Rinka MATSUDA	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	170	77	2001/12/5	5
12	Shione NAKAYAMA	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	166	70	1999/1/18	7
13	Mana FURUTA	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	167	70	1997/11/16	14
14	Hinano NAGURA	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	170	76	1997/3/22	10
15	Ai HIRAYAMA	JSDF Physical Training School	156	62	1992/5/7	4
16	Sachiko KATO	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	164	89	2000/2/19	10
17	Kotomi TANIGUCHI	MIE PEARLS	163	73	1995/4/10	3
18	Yuka SADAKA	Hirosaki sakura ovals	167	94	1994/11/2	12
19	Kie TAMAI	MIE PEARLS	168	79	1992/10/24	13
20	Iroha NAGATA	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	167	72	1998/12/21	15
21	Moe TSUKUI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	153	54	2000/3/28	19
22	Komachi IMAKUGI	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA /Rissho Univ.	158	61	2002/1/6	9
23	Yuki ITO	MIE PEARLS	163	64	1996/10/24	11