Sakura Fifteens to Take on Scotland in Second WXV2 Outing

Japan Head Coach Lesley McKenzie has today named her Sakura Fifteen team to take on Scotland in their second match of the 2024 WXV2, on Saturday, October 5 at Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town. Kicking off at 14:00 local South African time (21:00 JST), Japan will be looking to make amends following their 31-24 loss to South Africa in their opening match of the tournament.

Currently ranked fifth in World Rugby’s international rankings, Scotland are also the WXV2 reigning champions after having won last year’s inaugural tournament, which was also played in South Africa. Japan suffered a heavy 38-7 loss against them at last year’s tournament, so will be desperate to put in a stronger performance this time around. The task is not likely to be easy, with Scotland having comfortably defeated Italy 19-0 in their opening match last weekend.

Captained by flanker, Iroha Nagata, McKenzie has stuck mostly with the same selection as last week, with 17 of the matchday 23 starting in the same positions as the South Africa match. There is a direct swap between the hookers, with Asuka Kuge starting this weekend at number two, while Kotomi Taniguchi moves to the bench as the reserve rake.

Tackle busting, speedster Rinka Matsuda, who started last week on the bench moves onto the right wing, while a further three players come into the side as bench replacements. Playmaker Ayasa Otsuka, who played a solid game at number 10 last weekend, will run out on Saturday for her 30^th national team cap for Japan.

Commenting on the team announcement, Sakura Fifteens Backs Coach, Berrick Barnes said:

“We have a great opportunity this weekend in playing the number one ranked team in the competition. It’s a particularly good challenge for us and we’ve had a great week preparing for it. I can’t fault the girl’s commitment to the game plan and their efforts in training, with uur big point of difference is our speed and skillset. The challenge we have is that we’re smaller across the board than our opposition, but we make up for that with courage, speed and skill. This group are as tough as they come.”

The match will be broadcast from 20:50 on J Sports 4 and via J Sports On-Demand, both live and via catch-up.

All of Japan’s WXV2 matches will be telecast exclusively in Japan via J Sports. Fans looking to catch the other WXV2 matches in South Africa, along with all the WXV1 and WXV3 matches taking place in Canada and Dubai respectively, will be delighted that the entire tournament will be broadcast on RugbyPass TV, World Rugby’s global streaming platform.

Following their match against Scotland, Japan will face Wales in their final WXV2 match on Friday, October 11 at 16:00 local time (23:00 JST) at Athlone Sports Stadium.

Team List:

	Name	Club	Affiliation	Height(cm)	Weight(kg)	DOB	Caps
1	Sachiko KATO	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	SECOM CO., LTD.	164	90	2000/2/19	26
2	Asuka KUGE	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Goto Hygine Consultant	164	78	1994/9/22	16
3	Wako KITANO	MIE PEARLS	Sumitomo Wiring Systems	167	92	1999/9/8	16
4	Yuna SATO	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	Sankyu Inc.	170	76	1998/9/11	18
5	Otoka YOSHIMURA	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Saitamaken Shinkin Bank.	174	83	2001/5/15	23
6	Masami KAWAMURA	–	－	173	75	1999/7/13	17
7	Iroha NAGATA (C)	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Kanto Foods Co.,Ltd.	168	70	1998/12/21	35
8	Seina SAITO	MIE PEARLS	Eiwatech Co.,Ltd.	164	72	1992/5/30	45
9	Moe TSUKUI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	LIBEST Corp.	153	53	2000/3/28	36
10	Ayasa OTSUKA	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Inose Logistics Service Co., Ltd.	163	65	1999/5/5	29
11	Komachi IMAKUGI	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	OKINAYA Co.,Ltd	158	60	2002/1/6	27
12	Haruka HIROTSU	Nanairo PRISM FUKUOKA	Waseda Univ.	169	71	2000/10/29	11
13	Mana FURUTA	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	NTT Facilities Inc.	167	70	1997/11/16	31
14	Rinka MATSUDA	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	Toppan Inc.	171	74	2001/12/5	10
15	Sora NISHIMURA	MIE PEARLS	Choko Co.，Ltd.	167	68	2000/9/29	15
16	Kotomi TANIGUCHI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	NKS Corp	163	75	1995/4/10	21
17	Manami MINE	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	163	77	2003/9/11	8
18	Yuka SADAKA	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	Kansai Automation Co., LTD.	167	100	1994/11/2	20
19	Sakurako KORAI	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	168	73	2003/4/9	16
20	Jennifer NDUKA	Hokkaido Barbarians Diana	Medical System Network	168	80	2000/10/18	9
21	Megumi ABE	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	RDC Co.,Ltd.	147	55	1998/4/28	26
22	Minori YAMAMOTO	YOKOHAMA TKM	－	169	70	1996/12/9	32
23	Kanako KOBAYASHI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	Shonan Kamakura General Hospital	164	68	1998/11/13	15

(C) Captain