Rising to the Challenge at Rugby World Cup 2023
Halfway through their Pool D campaign at Rugby World Cup 2023, Japan know there can be no more slip-ups.
The 34-12 loss to England at Stade de Nice last Sunday has left the Brave Blossoms in third spot in the group, behind Samoa, their next opponents, and ahead of Argentina, who they play last in Nantes on Oct. 8.
“It’s a big game. It’s pretty much do-or-die now,” Lomano Lava Lemeki said of the Samoa game. “We’ll get away from footy for two days and refresh mentally. We’ll come back in and I’m sure Browny (assistant coach Tony Brown) will have a mastermind plan in place for us.”
“We don’t need bonus points, we just need to win and then beat Argentina. That’s what you live for – you love the pressure.”
“We’re just going to have to do it the hard way now. We win, we live to fight another day, if we lose we’ll go (home). We’ll save our best for these knockout games.”
Lemeki was forced into the action much earlier than he anticipated against England when he replaced Semisi Masirewa early in the first half. Masirewa has since been ruled out of the tournament and replaced by Ryohei Yamanaka.
Two late tries helped seal the win for England, whose physicality eventually proved too much for Japan, despite some valiant performances especially from the pack.
Following the second round of matches, it is a Japan forward who is the tournament’s leading tackler.
Jack Cornelsen is the son of Wallabies Hall-of-Famer Greg, who in 1978 scored four tries against the All Blacks at Auckland’s Eden Park.
The young lock/back-row forward is one of three young players originally from Queensland who have been nurtured at Saitama Wild Knights by Robbie Deans, and has been dubbed the “Silent Assassin” by the father of one of his teammates.
“It’s quite cool in my own team to see how our internationals prepare and view a game in match weeks,” Cornelsen said back in 2021, when the thought of playing for Japan first presented itself.
“There are little things I’ve learnt from Robbie since coming to Japan about running lines and timing my runs better that I’d never thought of before. I definitely feel I’ve improved.”
In addition to the 35 tackles he has made, Cornelsen has also been a handful at line-out time, making a number of steals. His Wild Knights teammate Rikiya Matsuda is also a category leader with a 100 percent kicking record, having slotted over 10 from 10.
Both will need to be at the top of their game in Toulouse on Sept. 28 if Japan are to have any chance of staying alive in the tournament.
And key to Japan will be making the most of their opportunities.
The Brave Blossoms are currently ranked 16th for positive outcomes with a 63 percent completion rate.
“We created a lot of opportunities, we just made too many mistakes,” said head coach Jamie Joseph and it was the same message from the players and the assistant coaches.
As wing Kotaro Matsushima pointed out, the team know what went wrong and know what they need to do to fix things.
“After today’s game a couple of boys will be more confident. It wasn’t a bad-looking loss, so we just keep going and play with confidence in the next two games and focus on the Samoa game.”
TEAM LIST
| No. | Name | Team | Height | Weight | Date of Birth | Caps |
| 1 | Keita INAGAKI | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/7/4 | 116 | 1990/6/2 | 50 |
| 2 | Shota HORIE | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/6/28 | 104 | 1986/1/21 | 73 |
| 3 | Jiwon GU | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | 1900/7/1 | 117 | 1994/7/20 | 26 |
| 4 | Jack CORNELSEN | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/7/13 | 110 | 1994/10/13 | 17 |
| 5 | Amato FAKATAVA | RICOH BLACKRAMS TOKYO | 1900/7/13 | 118 | 1994/12/7 | 4 |
| 6 | Michael LEITCH | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | 1900/7/7 | 113 | 1988/10/7 | 81 |
| 7 | Pieter LABUSCHAGNE | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | 189 | 106 | 1989/1/11 | 16 |
| 8 | Kazuki HIMENO | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | 1900/7/5 | 108 | 1994/7/27 | 29 |
| 9 | Yutaka NAGARE | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 1900/6/14 | 75 | 1992/9/4 | 35 |
| 10 | Rikiya MATSUDA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/6/29 | 92 | 1994/5/3 | 34 |
| 11 | Jone NAIKABULA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | 1900/6/25 | 95 | 1994/4/12 | 5 |
| 12 | Ryoto NAKAMURA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 1900/6/30 | 92 | 1991/6/3 | 36 |
| 13 | Tomoki OSADA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/6/27 | 90 | 1999/11/25 | 5 |
| 14 | Kotaro MATSUSHIMA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 1900/6/26 | 88 | 1993/2/26 | 52 |
| 15 | Semisi MASIREWA | HANAZONO KINTETSU LINERS | 1900/6/29 | 93 | 1992/6/9 | 6 |
| 16 | Atsushi SAKATE | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/6/28 | 104 | 1993/6/21 | 38 |
| 17 | Craig MILLAR | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/7/4 | 116 | 1990/10/29 | 14 |
| 18 | Asaeli Ai VALU | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/7/5 | 115 | 1989/5/7 | 27 |
| 19 | Warner DEARNS | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | 1900/7/19 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 8 |
| 20 | Kanji SHIMOKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 1900/7/6 | 105 | 1999/1/17 | 3 |
| 21 | Naoto SAITO | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | 1900/6/13 | 73 | 1997/8/26 | 16 |
| 22 | Dylan RILEY | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | 1900/7/5 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 15 |
| 23 | Lomano Lava LEMEKI | NEC GREEN ROCKETS TOKATSU | 1900/6/26 | 96 | 1989/1/20 | 17 |
