Sakura Fifteens to Take on Wales in Final WXV2 Clash

Japan Head Coach Lesley McKenzie has today named her Sakura Fifteen team to take on Wales in their final match of the 2024 WXV2, on Friday, October 11 at Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town. Kicking off at 16:00 local South African time (23:00 JST), Japan will be hungry to get their first win of the tournament.

In their two earlier matches, the Sakura Fifteen fell to hosts South Africa 31-24 in their first match, and lost 19-13 in their second fixture against Scotland, the reigning WXV2 Champions and the top-ranked team in the 2024 tournament. Across both matches, Japan played high-pace and high-skill, courageous rugby, but it wasn’t to be enough.

In their match against South Africa, Japan struggled to defend their line from the close quarter, driving play of the giant South African pack, letting in tries that ultimately cost them the game.

Against Scotland, who inflicted a 38-7 hammering on Japan at last year’s tournament, the Sakura Fifteen played a scintillating game of high skill, attacking endeavour and dogged defence, which proved a constant thorn in the side of the fifth ranked Scots.

With Japan attacking the Scottish line for much of the final quarter, it looked as if an historic upset might have been on the cards, however the Scots held on to their six-point lead to win the match and keep their hopes of back-to-back WXV2 Championship trophies alive.

This weekend’s team is captained once again by flanker, Iroha Nagata and is a near identical side to the one that faced Scotland last weekend. There is once again a direct swap at hooker, with Asuka Kuge returning to the bench, while Kotomi Taniguchi moves back into the starting lineup.

The two other changes to the matchday 23 sees the recall of Misaki Matsumura on the right wing, while Kyoko Hosokawa returns to the bench as the reserve lock. Both players played in the same positions in the opening match against South Africa but sat out the fixture against Scotland.

Commenting on the team announcement, Japan Head Coach Lesley McKenzie said:

“We’re really buoyed and excited about the progress of our performances, albeit we’re a little bit frustrated with the results. But we’re building really nicely towards our third game against Wales, who will also have some reason to come out and exorcise some frustration.

We’ve had two pretty bruising games against physical opponents in South Africa and Scotland, but everybody is fit and healthy. We’ve faced strong opposition and have trained well over the last few days. There are things we can’t learn in our own environment and things we can’t learn as a squad in a two-test series. The challenge in preparing for three different sides, over three weeks, while being on tour together is such fabulous buildup for us ahead of next year’s World Cup.”

The match will be broadcast from 22:50 exclusively in Japan on J Sports4 and via J Sports On-Demand, both live and via catch-up.

Fans looking to catch the other matches across the last weekend of WXV2 in South Africa, along with all the WXV1 and WXV3 matches taking place in Canada and Dubai respectively, will be delighted that the entire tournament will be broadcast on RugbyPass TV, World Rugby’s global streaming platform.

Team List:

	Name	Club	Affiliation	Height (cm)	Weight (kg)	DOB	Caps
1	Sachiko KATO	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	SECOM CO. LTD.	164	90	2000/2/19	27
2	Kotomi TANIGUCHI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	NKS Corp	163	75	1995/4/10	22
3	Wako KITANO	MIE PEARLS	Sumitomo Wiring Systems	167	92	1999/9/8	17
4	Yuna SATO	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	Sankyu Inc.	170	76	1998/9/11	19
5	Otoka YOSHIMURA	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Saitamaken Shinkin Bank.	174	83	2001/5/15	24
6	Masami KAWAMURA	–	－	173	75	1999/7/13	18
7	Iroha NAGATA (C)	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Kanto Foods Co. Ltd	168	70	1998/12/21	36
8	Seina SAITO	MIE PEARLS	Eiwatech Co. Ltd	164	72	1992/5/30	46
9	Moe TSUKUI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	LIBEST Corp.	153	53	2000/3/28	37
10	Ayasa OTSUKA	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Inose Logistics Service Co., Ltd.	163	65	1999/5/5	30
11	Komachi IMAKUGI	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	OKINAYA Co. Ltd	158	60	2002/1/6	28
12	Haruka HIROTSU	Nanairo PRISM FUKUOKA	Waseda Univ.	169	71	2000/10/29	12
13	Mana FURUTA	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	NTT Facilities Inc.	167	70	1997/11/16	32
14	Misaki MATSUMURA	Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix	Waseda Univ.	169	72	2005/3/6	9
15	Sora NISHIMURA	MIE PEARLS	Choko Co. Ltd	167	68	2000/9/29	16
16	Asuka KUGE	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	Goto Hygiene Consultant	164	78	1994/9/22	17
17	Manami MINE	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	Nippon Sport Science Univ.	163	77	2003/9/11	9
18	Nijiho NAGATA	MIE PEARLS	SEIBUNSHA Co., Ltd.	162	80	2000/12/6	25
19	Kyoko HOSOKAWA	MIE PEARLS	Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd.	164	73	1999/7/8	14
20	Jennifer NDUKA	Hokkaido Barbarians Diana	Medical System Network	168	80	2000/10/18	10
21	Megumi ABE	ARUKAS QUEEN KUMAGAYA	RDC Co. Ltd	147	55	1998/4/28	27
22	Minori YAMAMOTO	YOKOHAMA TKM	－	169	70	1996/12/9	33
23	Kanako KOBAYASHI	YOKOGAWA Musashino Artemi-Stars	Shonan Kamakura General Hospital	164	68	1998/11/13	16

(C) Captain