Brave Blossoms Get Set for Uruguay Test in France
Brave Blossoms Head Coach, Eddie Jones has named his side to take on Uruguay’s Los Teros this Saturday, November 16 in their second of three, Lipovitan D Tour 2024 matches in Europe. Kicking off at 14:30 local time, 22:30 Japan Standard Time, the match will be hosted at Chambéry Savoie Stadium, a neutral venue in the alpine French city of Chambéry, a one-hour drive east of Lyon.
The Japan-Uruguay fixture will be the first of two internationals to be played in Chambéry on Saturday, with the USA set to face Tonga in the second match of the test match double-header.
Japan have faced Uruguay on five previous occasions and currently hold bragging rights between the two sides with their four victories, and just the one loss. Uruguay last toured Japan in 2022 for a two-match series. Japan won the first match 34-15, and followed up with a decisive, 43-7 win in the second fixture.
Prior to this, Japan hosted Los Teros for a two-test series in 2015, winning both matches, 40-0 and 30-8. The first meeting between the two sides back in 2005 saw Uruguay notch up their first and only ever victory against the Brave Blossoms, with a hard fought, 24-18 win in the Uruguayan Capital, Montevideo.
Following Japan’s 52-12 loss to France last weekend in Paris, the Brave Blossoms will be looking to bounce back on Saturday against the 19th ranked Uruguayans. Jones has chosen to keep the majority of last weekend’s team in place, with just six new players coming into the matchday 23.
The most notable change is the selection of rookie playmaker, Takuro Matsunaga, who is set to start at number 10 in just his third test cap. He comes in for 62-cap veteran and Team Captain, Harumichi Tatekawa who has returned home to Japan after suffering an injury while scoring a try last weekend against France.
Commenting ahead of the match, and on what the team has been focusing on during their preparations this week, Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“Over the week we’ve been working hard on our handling and breakdown work. At the moment we’re a high rucking team and that puts a lot of pressure on our support play and handling. But we’ve had a good week of preparation in that regard.
“We’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves with the sort of rugby we’re playing and we understand that. We turn the ball over too much, giving the opposition unstructured situations which to attack from.
“There are two ways to look at it. One – we’ve got to improve our attention to the ball, given the way we attack, which we’re working on, and secondly, we’ve just got to make our tackles. Double tackles, slow the ball down, get set and go again. It’s the consistency of our defence that needs to improve and our ability to react quickly to unstructured situations.
The match will be broadcast live from 22:15 JST on J Sport 1 and streamed live and via catch-up on both J Sports On-Demand and WOWOW On-Demand.
Following their match against Uruguay, Japan will travel to London to face England at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham next Sunday, 24 November. Having played England in their opening match of the season in Tokyo back in June, it’s fitting that the Brave Blossom’s final match of the year will be against England at Twickenham, the home of rugby.
| No. | Name |
Club Team | Graduate | Height cm | Weight kg | DOB | Cap |
| 1 | Takato OKABE | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | Kwansei Gakuin Univ. | 180 | 105 | 1995/2/19 | 6 |
| 2 | Mamoru HARADA (VC) | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Keio Univ. | 175 | 101 | 1999/4/15 | 9 |
| 3 | Keijiro TAMEFUSA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 180 | 108 | 2001/9/3 | 8 |
| 4 | Epineri ULUIVITI | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars | Ratu Kadavulevu School | 196 | 122 | 1996/7/7 | 4 |
| 5 | Warner DEARNS | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Ryutsu Keizai Univ. KASHIWA HS. | 201 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 20 |
| 6 | Amato FAKATAVA | RICOH BlackRams Tokyo | Daito Bunka Univ. | 195 | 118 | 1994/12/7 | 12 |
| 7 | Kanji SHIMOKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 188 | 105 | 1999/1/17 | 12 |
| 8 | Kazuki HIMENO | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Teikyo Univ | 187 | 109 | 1994/7/27 | 34 |
| 9 | Naoto SAITO (C) | Stade Toulousain | Waseda Univ. | 165 | 73 | 1997/8/26 | 22 |
| 10 | Takuro MATSUNAGA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Tenri Univ. | 172 | 82 | 1998/8/13 | 2 |
| 11 | Junta HAMANO | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Rotorua Boys HS. | 180 | 93 | 2001/5/2 | 1 |
| 12 | Siosaia FIFITA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Tenri Univ. | 187 | 105 | 1998/12/20 | 14 |
| 13 | Dylan RILEY (VC) | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Bond Univ. | 187 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 26 |
| 14 | Jone NAIKABULA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Setsunan Univ. | 177 | 95 | 1994/4/12 | 15 |
| 15 | Malo TUITAMA | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Scots College | 182 | 91 | 1996/3/23 | 6 |
| 16 | Kenta MATSUOKA | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Meiji Univ. | 175 | 100 | 1997/6/6 | 3 |
| 17 | Yukio MORIKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Teikyo Univ. | 180 | 114 | 1993/2/6 | 3 |
| 18 | Opeti HELU | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Newington College | 190 | 127 | 1998/07/22 | 1 |
| 19 | Sanaila WAQA | HANAZONO KINTETSU LINERS | Hastings Boys High School | 202 | 120 | 1995/7/17 | 8 |
| 20 | Isaiah MAPUSUA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Keio Univ. | 191 | 112 | 2000/12/21 | 4 |
| 21 | Shinobu FUJIWARA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 171 | 76 | 1999/2/8 | 8 |
| 22 | Nicholas MCCURRAN | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Teikyo Univ. | 188 | 93 | 1996/6/13 | 5 |
| 23 | Yusuke KAJIMURA | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | Meiji Univ. | 181 | 95 | 1995/9/13 | 5 |
(VC) Vice Captain