Jones makes wholesale changes for final A5N game

DUBAI (May 07) – Head coach Eddie Jones kept his word and made wholesale changes to his team for Friday’s test with the United Arab Emirates, Japan’s last in this year’s HSBC Asian 5 Nations.

 Only three players who started in last week’s win over South Korea keep their places in the starting line-up and one of those, Takashi Kikutani, changes position.

“We’ve won the Asian 5 Nations and achieved our first goal,” said Jones. “So we are using this game as preparation for the Pacific Nations Cup. It’s an opportunity for some guys to cement their place in the squad.”

The entire front five is new with Masataka Mikami and Hiroshi Yamashita propping down either side of Takeshi Kizu.

Shoji Ito gets his first start of the year and he will lock down with Shinya Makabe in the engine room.

Michael Broadhurst keeps his spot at  No. 7, Kikutani moves to No. 8 and Hendrik Tui comes in at No. 6.

There is a new halfback pairing in Keisuke Uchida – winning just his third cap – and Yu Tamura, and a brand new centre pairing.

Former Australia rugby league player Craig Wing will win his first cap, while Seiichi Shimomura returns to the international fold to win his fourth cap.

Yoshikazu Fujita, who scored six tries in the corresponding fixture last year, and Yuta Imamura line up on the wings with veteran Hirotoki Onozawa set to win his 78th cap, albeit in the relatively unfamiliar position of fullback.

“We wanted to give (Ayumu) Goromaru a rest and Onozawa was the best person in that position,” said Jones.

In addition to Wing, there are two uncapped players on the bench in Ryuta Yasui and Ryota Nakamura.

The game kicks off Friday evening at The Sevens at 8 pm, local time.