Japan at the USA Sevens

2016-17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series
2017 USA Sevens

03-05 March 2017, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas

The 2017 Las Vegas Sevens was the fifth leg of the 2016-17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Japan are one of the fifteen core teams in the series and they were in Pool D along with Australia, Fiji and Scotland.

In their opening pool game against Fiji on Friday 3 March, the Olympic Gold medallists ran away with the result 41-0. Later in the day, the Japanese pushed Australia all the way, but ended up going down 19-12. On Saturday 4 March, there was more pain to come at the hands of Scotland as the Scots inflicted the third pool loss on Japan with a 33-7 score line.

Japan finished on the bottom of their pool and in the knockout stage of the tournament; they were in the play-offs for thirteenth place. In the quarterfinals, France beat Japan 24-14 leaving the Japanese side to move through to the semi-finals.

On Sunday 5 March, Japan chalked up their first win in the Nevada desert with a 24-7 win over Chile. However, there was little joy in the final as Wales snuck home 21-19.

In the Cup final, South Africa beat Fiji 19-12 while the USA beat New Zealand 19-15 in the third-place play-off.

Squad

Katsuyuki Sakai, Kazuhiro Goya, Kosuke Hashino, Dai Ozawa, Kameli Raravou Soejima, Jonmoon Han, Dallas Tatana, Patrick Steflin, Masahiro Nakano, Ryota Kano, Rikiya Oishi and Naoki Motomura. Coach: Damian Karauna.