23 May,2014
Ono set for milestone in big game
TOKYO (May 23) – Hitoshi Ono will join Hirotoki Onozawa as Japan’s most capped player when he takes to the field Sunday in the Brave Blossoms’ big game with Hong Kong.
The 36-year-old lock will win his 81st cap in a game that will not just decide the winners of this year’s Asian 5 Nations but more importantly will earn the victors an automatic spot at next year’s Rugby World Cup.
“It’s a great honour and a real tribute to the great staff we have,” Ono said Friday at the team announcement. “I hope we are able to show the Japan Way. It’s really important that we play well and show people what the World Cup is all about.”
Ono is joined in the second row by Luke Thompson, the only change to the starting XV that took to the field last week in Incheon, South Korea.
“We have picked our strongest and most experienced team for the most important game of the season,” said head coach Eddie Jones.
The team announcement was made in the presence of the Webb Ellis Cup, which is currently in Japan as part of a world tour ahead of next year’s tournament in England.
“That cup was won in 2007 by kicking, and I imagine Hong Kong will kick a lot on Sunday,” said Jones, who was an advisor to the 2007 champions South Africa. “Hong Kong are a field position team but in order to score points they need to dominate the set piece and we fully understand the importance of that area.”
With that in mind, Jones has named six forwards on the bench, including Shinya Makabe, who makes way for Thompson, and Hendrik Tui, who missed last week’s 62-5 win over South Korea for family reasons.
“I expect the game to be played in the forwards, so we have gone with a heavier emphasis on the forwards in terms of the reserves,” he said. “The two reserve backs can cover any permutations we need there.”