Jones Picks Youthful Squad Ahead of Pacific Nations Cup
Japan National Team Head Coach Eddie Jones has today announced his Brave Blossoms squad for the upcoming Pacific Nations Cup 2024. Consisting of 19 forwards and 16 backs, the 35-member squad maintains the distinctly youthful feel of the team that played across the three summer test matches Japan hosted against England, Georgia and Italy, and the two non-capped matches against the Māori All Blacks.
Included in the squad are seven debutants who will be looking to grab their opportunity to earn their first test caps for Japan. Alongside them, 21 players have ten caps or less, while only four members have 20 or more caps. Two of the debutants include university students Yamato Murata and Kohaku Ebisawa, while fullback Yoshitaka Yazaki, who featured in all three summer test matches and in both games against the Māori All Blacks makes up the third university player in the squad.
Contested between Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada, the USA and Japan, the Pacific Nations Cup provides these burgeoning test nations with an annual tournament similar in stature to Europe’s Six Nations and the Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby Championship.
This year’s competition sees two pools of three teams play in a round-robin format between August 24 – September 7, with each team playing host to one test match on home soil. The Pacific Island giants of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga will compete in Pool A, while Canada, Japan and the USA will fight it out in Pool B.
In their two pool matches, Japan will play Canada in Vancouver at BC Place Stadium on Sunday, August 25 and then host the USA at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium in Saitama on Saturday, September 7.
Following the pool rounds, all six teams will make their way to Japan to contest the Finals series. The Finals will consist of a Fifth Place Play-Off and two Semi-Finals in which the four top-ranked teams will compete for a spot in the Final.
The Fifth Place Play-Off and Semi-Finals will take place at Tokyo’s historic Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium across the weekend of September 14 and 15. The following weekend the action moves to Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka for the Third Place Play-Off and winner-takes-all Final on the weekend of September 21 and 22.
Commenting on the squad selections, Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“We’ve named a squad that based on the availability of players is the strongest we can bring together to represent Japan at the PNC. This tournament is hugely important as it involves teams around the same level as Japan. We want to make sure we keen improving from our performances over the summer, particularly in terms of maintaining possession and focusing on being brilliant at the fundamentals of the game.
“When you’ve got a young team and you want to play at speed, it’s about being able to execute while staying composed. We’re working really hard to build the fundamentals within the players and creating opportunities for them to learn to be more composed when we have the ball and have the opportunity to score.”
The squad will assemble at their training base in Miyazaki, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu from August 10 to 16 and again from August 31 to September 22. The selected traveling squad will then depart for Canada on September 17 ahead of their first pool match on September 25 in Vancouver.
＜FW：19Players＞
| Name | Club Team | Graduate | cm | kg | DOB | Cap |
| Takato OKABE | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | Kwansei Gakuin Univ. | 180 | 105 | 1995/2/19 | 2 |
| Shogo MIURA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Tokai Univ. | 180 | 115 | 1995/6/8 | 9 |
| Takayoshi MOHARA | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Chuo Univ. | 187 | 116 | 2000/3/17 | 3 |
| Atsushi SAKATE | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Teikyo Univ. | 180 | 104 | 1993/6/21 | 44 |
| Mamoru HARADA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Keio Univ. | 175 | 101 | 1999/4/15 | 3 |
| Kenta MATSUOKA | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Meiji Univ. | 175 | 100 | 1997/6/6 | 0 |
| Yusuke KIZU | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Tenri Univ. | 178 | 115 | 1995/12/2 | 5 |
| Shuhei TAKEUCHI | URAYASU D-Rocks | Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ. | 183 | 115 | 1997/12/9 | 6 |
| Keijiro TAMEFUSA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 180 | 108 | 2001/9/3 | 3 |
| Epineri ULUIVITI | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars | Ratu Kadavulevu School | 196 | 122 | 1996/7/7 | 0 |
| Eishin KUWANO | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Waseda Univ. | 193 | 112 | 1994/10/11 | 1 |
| Sanaila WAQA | HANAZONO KINTETSU LINERS | Hastings Boys’ High School [ＮＺ] | 202 | 120 | 1995/7/17 | 5 |
| Warner DEARNS | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Ryutsu Keizai Univ. KASHIWA HS. | 201 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 14 |
| Amanaki SAUMAKI | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Tupou College | 189 | 107 | 1997/3/8 | 5 |
| Kanji SHIMOKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 188 | 105 | 1999/1/17 | 6 |
| Tiennan COSTLEY | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | International Pacific Univ. | 192 | 102 | 2000/6/14 | 2 |
| Isaiah MAPUSUA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Keio Univ. | 191 | 112 | 2000/12/21 | 0 |
| Kai YAMAMOTO | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Keio Univ. | 177 | 100 | 2000/3/17 | 1 |
| Faulua MAKISI | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 187 | 112 | 1997/1/20 | 8 |
＜BK：16Players＞
| Name | Club Team | Graduate | cm | kg | DOB | Cap |
| Taiki KOYAMA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Daito Bunka Univ. | 171 | 74 | 1994/10/31 | 2 |
| Shinobu FUJIWARA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 171 | 76 | 1999/2/8 | 2 |
| Yamato MURATA | Kyoto Sangyo Univ. | Hotoku Gakuen HS. | 168 | 69 | 2004/10/15 | 0 |
| Rikiya MATSUDA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Teikyo Univ. | 181 | 92 | 1994/5/3 | 39 |
| Seungsin LEE | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Osaka Korean HS. | 176 | 86 | 2001/1/13 | 14 |
| Kohaku EBISAWA | Meiji Univ. | Hotoku Gakuen HS. | 173 | 79 | 2004/10/27 | 0 |
| Koga NEZUKA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Hosei Univ. | 173 | 82 | 1998/9/15 | 2 |
| Harumichi TATEKAWA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 180 | 94 | 1989/12/2 | 56 |
| Samisoni TUA | URAYASU D-Rocks | Setsunan Univ. | 182 | 108 | 1995/5/24 | 3 |
| Tomoki OSADA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Waseda Univ. | 179 | 90 | 1999/11/25 | 10 |
| Nicholas MCCURRAN | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Teikyo Univ. | 188 | 93 | 1996/6/13 | 0 |
| Dylan RILEY | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Bond Univ. [AUS] | 187 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 20 |
| Malo TUITAMA | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Scots College [NZ] | 182 | 91 | 1996/3/23 | 0 |
| Jone NAIKABULA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Setsunan Univ. | 177 | 95 | 1994/4/12 | 11 |
| Yoshitaka YAZAKI | Waseda Univ. | Toin Gakuen HS. | 180 | 85 | 2004/5/12 | 3 |
| Takuya YAMASAWA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Tsukuba Univ. | 176 | 84 | 1994/9/21 | 9 |
＜Rehabilitation Group：1Player＞
| Name | Club Team | Graduate | cm | kg | DOB | Cap |
| Amato FAKATAVA | RICOH BlackRams Tokyo | Daito Bunka Univ. | 195 | 118 | 1994/12/7 | 7 |
Japan Rugby 2024 Future Match Schedule
Sunday, 25 August
Pacific Nations Cup 2024 Pool B Match Canada vs Japan
BC Place Stadium, Vancouver
Saturday, 7 September
Pacific Nations Cup 2024 Pool B Match Japan vs USA
Kumagaya Rugby Stadium, Saitama
Saturday, 26 October
Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2024 Japan vs All Blacks
Nissan Stadium, Yokohama
Saturday, 9 November
France vs Japan
Stade de France, Paris
Sunday 24 November
England vs Japan
Twickenham Stadium, London
Pacific Nations Cup 2024 Finals
Saturday/Sunday 14 & 15 September
Semi-Finals & Fifth Place Play-off (three matches)
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium Tokyo
Saturday 21 September
Final & Third Place Play-off (two matches)
Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Higashi Osaka
Japan Rugby 2024 Match Results
Saturday 22 June
Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2024 Japan vs England
National Stadium, Tokyo
17-52 (L)
Saturday 29 June
Japan XV vs Māori All Blacks
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo
10-36 (L)
Saturday 6 July
Japan XV vs Māori All Blacks
Toyota Stadium, Toyota City
26-14 (W)
Saturday 13 July
Japan vs Georgia
Yurtek Stadium, Sendai
23-25 (L)
Sunday 21 July
Japan vs Italy
Sapporo Dome, Sapporo
14-42 (L)