Brave Blossoms Side Named for Italy Test
Japan Head Coach, Eddie Jones has named his team to take on Italy this Sunday, July 21 in Sapporo, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido in a one-off test match as part of the Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2024.
Kicking off at 14:05 on Sunday afternoon, the Brave Blossoms will host the Azzurri at Sapporo Dome, the northernmost venue to stage Rugby World Cup matches in 2019. The test match will be the tenth contested between the two sides since 1976, with Japan having won on only two previous occasions, compared to Italy’s seven victories.
Currently ranked eighth in World Rugby’s global rankings, Italy will provide a stern test for a Brave Blossoms side looking to make amends following their narrow two-point loss to Georgia last weekend in Sendai.
Jones has stuck with a team closely resembling his side from last week, with only five new players coming into the matchday 23. Of these changes, two were forced upon him with the one and three match suspensions handed down respectively to backrower Kanji Shimokawa and scrumhalf Naoto Saito following the match against Georgia.
The five players coming into the side includes Eishin Kuwano who will earn his first cap in the second row alongside the impressive Warner Dearns. He is joined by backrower Amanaki Saumaki who comes into the team as the starting blindside after having played against England in Japan’s first test of the year and in both non-capped matches against the Māori All Blacks.
The other changes in the forwards see Japan’s talismanic Captain, Michael Leitch move from the second row to the openside flank, with Faulua Makisi shifting from the blindside to number eight. He replaces Tevita Tatafu who will add his significant physical presence as an impact player from the reserves bench.
In the backs, veteran flyhalf Rikiya Matsuda comes into the side to add 38 caps worth of experience to the Brave Blossoms backline. He replaces Seungsin Lee who joins Takuya Yamasawa as the second playmaker on the reserves bench. The other backline reserve coming into the team is scrumhalf Shinobu Fujiwara who made his test match debut against England last month in Tokyo.
Commenting on the Brave Blossoms’ team selection, Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“This is our last game of the summer, so we want to make a statement. We’ve selected a team that can do a bit of a job on an Italian side who are obviously very strong and currently are at their highest ever world rankings at eighth place. For us it’s a game we’re really looking forward to. We’ve had a strong preparation week, probably the best we’ve had across our three tests this year.
“Against Georgia we didn’t handle the sin bin very well, which ended up deciding the game. We’re still focusing on our game, developing how we want to attack and defend, and this campaign was always going to be about that. Whilst we’ve done everything this week to prepare for Italy and we believe we’ve got a good game plan to play against them, it’s still very much about focusing on ourselves.’
The match will be broadcast live, nationwide on Nippon TV from 14:00 and J Sports 2 from 13:30. It will also be available for streaming via Hulu from 14:00 and through J Sports On-Demand, both live and via catch-up from 13:30.
| No | Name | Club Team | Graduate | Height cm | Weight kg | DOB | Cap |
| 1 | Takayoshi MOHARA | SHIZUOKA Blue Revs | Chuo Univ. | 187 | 116 | 2000/3/17 | 2 |
| 2 | Mamoru HARADA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Keio Univ. | 175 | 101 | 1999/4/15 | 2 |
| 3 | Shuhei TAKEUCHI | URAYASU D-Rocks | Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ. | 183 | 115 | 1997/12/9 | 5 |
| 4 | Eishin KUWANO | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Waseda Univ. | 193 | 112 | 1994/10/11 | 0 |
| 5 | Warner DEARNS | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Ryutsu Keizai Univ. KASHIWA HS. | 201 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 13 |
| 6 | Amanaki SAUMAKI | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Tupou College | 189 | 107 | 1997/3/8 | 4 |
| 7 | Michael LEITCH (C) | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Tokai Univ. | 189 | 113 | 1988/10/7 | 86 |
| 8 | Faulua MAKISI | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 187 | 112 | 1997/1/20 | 7 |
| 9 | Taiki KOYAMA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Daito Bunka Univ. | 171 | 74 | 1994/10/31 | 1 |
| 10 | Rikiya MATSUDA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Teikyo Univ. | 181 | 92 | 1994/5/3 | 38 |
| 11 | Tomoki OSADA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Waseda Univ. | 179 | 90 | 1999/11/25 | 9 |
| 12 | Samisoni TUA | URAYASU D-Rocks | Setsunan Univ. | 182 | 108 | 1995/5/24 | 2 |
| 13 | Dylan RILEY | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Bond Univ. | 187 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 19 |
| 14 | Jone NAIKABULA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Setsunan Univ. | 177 | 95 | 1994/4/12 | 10 |
| 15 | Yoshitaka YAZAKI | Waseda Univ. | Toin Gakuen HS. | 180 | 85 | 2004/5/12 | 2 |
| 16 | Atsushi SAKATE | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Teikyo Univ. | 180 | 104 | 1993/6/21 | 43 |
| 17 | Takato OKABE | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | Kwansei Gakuin Univ. | 180 | 105 | 1995/2/19 | 1 |
| 18 | Keijiro TAMEFUSA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 180 | 108 | 2001/9/3 | 2 |
| 19 | Sanaila WAQA | HANAZONO KINTETSU LINERS | Hastings Boys’ High School | 202 | 120 | 1995/7/17 | 4 |
| 20 | Tevita TATAFU | Union Bordeaux Bègles | Tokai Univ. | 183 | 124 | 1996/1/2 | 17 |
| 21 | Shinobu FUJIWARA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 171 | 76 | 1999/2/8 | 1 |
| 22 | Seungsin LEE | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Osaka Korean HS. | 176 | 86 | 2001/1/13 | 13 |
| 23 | Takuya YAMASAWA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Tsukuba Univ. | 176 | 84 | 1994/9/21 | 8 |
*(C) Captain
Japan vs Italy Past Results:
August 26, 2023 (L) 42-12 Treviso
June 16, 2018 (L) 22-25 Kobe
June 9, 2018 (W) 34-17 Oita
June 21, 2014 (W) 26-23 Tokyo
August 13, 2011 (L) 31-24 Cesena
August 18, 2007 (L) 36-12 Aosta
June 11, 2006 (L) 52-6 Tokyo
July 4, 2004 (L) 32-19 Tokyo
October 21, 1976 (L) 25-3 Padova