Japan Team Announced to Play Italy at U20 World Championships

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The JRFU are pleased to announce the Japan U20 team for their final match at the 2023 World Rugby U20 Championships in South Africa. Having fallen to Argentina 45-20 in their 9th place play-off, Japan now face Italy in the match to decide the overall 11th place at the tournament.

Kicking off at 12:00 South African local time (19:00 JST) on Friday, 14 July, Japan will be looking to salvage some pride after having failed to record a win throughout the tournament. Having defeated a highly rated South African team 26-34 in their second Pool C match, Italy will undoubtedly provide another stern test for Japan as they also look to finish the tournament on a high note.

Captain Yoshiki Omachi at outside-centre will lead a mostly unchanged team from the match against Argentina. The starting backline remains the same, while in the forwards, Takashi Omoto moves into the starting hooker role, as a direct replacement with Kouta Nagashima who will start the match from the reserves bench. In the backrow, Tenta Kobayashi moves from number-eight to the blindside flank to make way for Tasion Mogami who moves from the bench to the starting number-eight position.

Team List
No. Name
1 Sena HWANG
2 Takashi OMOTO
3 Riku TOMITA
4 Yuzuki SASAKI
5 Kantaro TAJIMA
6 Tenta KOBAYASHI
7 Tomoki KUSUDA
8 Taison MOGAMI
9 Asahi DOEI
10 Kanjiro NARAMOTO
11 Kosho MUTO
12 Kengo NONAKA
13 Yoshiki OMACHI（C）
14 Renji OIKE
15 Yoshitaka YAZAKI
16 Kouta NAGASHIMA
17 Tomoki YUMBE
18 Kosuke SUGIURA
19 Bunsuke KURITA
20 Keito HAYASHI
21 Yutaro TAKAHASHI
22 Taishin OHSHIMA
23 Genki IKUTA