Brave Blossoms Side Named for Canada PNC Clash
Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones has named his side to take on Canada in their Pacific Nations Cup 2025 Pool B match this Saturday, August 30 at Yurtec Stadium in Japan’s northern city of Sendai. Kicking off at 17:00 JST, the match sees the start of Japan’s PNC campaign in which they will look to go one better than their Runners Up medal in last year’s competition.
Drawn from a largely inexperienced 28-payer squad, Jones has once again put his faith in his next generation of Brave Blossoms selecting four debutants and eight players holding just 10 caps or less in his matchday 23. With an average of 9 caps per player spread across the team, senior campaigners like Captain Warner Dearns (23 caps), flyhalf Seungsin Lee (20 caps) and centre Dylan Riley (30 caps) will provide valuable leadership and experience to a group of players at the front-end of their international careers.
Commenting on the team selection, Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“We’ve had really good preparation for the Canada game starting with separate four-day forwards and backs camps and then coming together as a team for the last week and half. We feel like we’ve made some good progression. It’s an important game, the first in a competition that we’re aiming to win. Canada’s number 10, Nelson has got a very educated left boot so they will be looking to kick a fair bit. We will have to deal with their high balls and then use that as an opportunity to attack.
“It will be a great occasion for Warner as Captain. What he’s done over the last week and half has been very good. Our Co-Captain Harada is unfortunately not fit to play, but he’s been really influential off the field. It’s been a good start for the two of them for what is an enormous honour to captain Japan.
“We’ve got the youngest ever Captain for Japan and eight players with one cap or less in the team, so it’s a really young group. That’s exciting because when you’ve got a group of young players together, they can grow up and experience tough times and then really learn how to enjoy the victories when they come.”
Following their match against Canada, the group will travel to California for their second Pool B match against the USA at Heart Health Park in Sacramento on Saturday, September 6. The squad will remain in the USA for the finals series which begin on Sunday, September 14. The first weekend comprising the Fifth Place Playoff and Semi-Finals will take place in Denver, Colorado. The remaining four teams will then battle it out on Saturday, September 20 in the Third Place Playoff and Final in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The match will be broadcast live in Japan on J Sports 1 from 16:30 and streamed live and via catch-up on J Sports On-Demand. For fans looking to catch the action at the stadium, tickets are still available via the newly optimised English-language ticketing website at: https://quick.pia.jp/japan-rugby_en/
| No. | Name | Club Team | Graduate | Height cm | Weight kg | DOB | Cap |
| 1 | Sena KIMURA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Tokai Univ. | 175 | 105 | 1999/6/24 | 1 |
| 2 | Hayate ERA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Teikyo Univ. | 172 | 106 | 2001/9/18 | 1 |
| 3 | Shuhei TAKEUCHI | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ. | 183 | 115 | 1997/12/9 | 15 |
| 4 | Waisake RARATUBUA | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Tokai Univ. | 193 | 120 | 1998/3/17 | 2 |
| 5 | Warner DEARNS (C) | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Ryutsu Keizai Univ. KASHIWA HS. | 201 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 23 |
| 6 | Ben GUNTER | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Brisbane Boys’ College | 195 | 120 | 1997/10/24 | 11 |
| 7 | Kanji SHIMOKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 188 | 105 | 1999/1/17 | 14 |
| 8 | Amato FAKATAVA | RICOH BlackRams Tokyo | Daito Bunka Univ. | 195 | 118 | 1994/12/7 | 14 |
| 9 | Shinobu FUJIWARA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 171 | 76 | 1999/2/8 | 12 |
| 10 | Seungsin LEE | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Osaka Korean HS. | 176 | 86 | 2001/1/13 | 20 |
| 11 | Malo TUITAMA | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Scots College | 182 | 91 | 1996/3/23 | 8 |
| 12 | Charlie LAWRENCE | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars | Hamilton Boys’HS. | 170 | 89 | 1998/5/27 | 0 |
| 13 | Dylan RILEY | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Bond Univ. | 187 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 30 |
| 14 | Kippei ISHIDA | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | Meiji Univ. | 167 | 75 | 2000/4/28 | 2 |
| 15 | Sam GREENE | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Brisbane Grammar HS. | 178 | 85 | 1994/8/16 | 1 |
| 16 | Kenji SATO | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Waseda Univ. | 177 | 108 | 2003/1/4 | 0 |
| 17 | Kenta KOBAYASHI | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 181 | 113 | 1999/6/2 | 0 |
| 18 | Keijiro TAMEFUSA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 180 | 108 | 2001/9/3 | 11 |
| 19 | Tiennan COSTLEY | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | International Pacific Univ. | 192 | 102 | 2000/6/14 | 6 |
| 20 | Faulua MAKISI | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 187 | 112 | 1997/1/20 | 16 |
| 21 | Kenta FUKUDA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Meiji Univ. | 173 | 83 | 1996/12/19 | 1 |
| 22 | Yuya HIROSE | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 182 | 94 | 2001/4/7 | 0 |
| 23 | Tomoki OSADA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Waseda Univ. | 179 | 90 | 1999/11/25 | 17 |
*(C) Captain
Brave Blossoms Upcoming Match Schedule
Saturday 30 August
Japan vs Canada
Pacific Nations Cup 2025 (Pool B)
Yurtec Stadium, Sendai
Saturday 6 September
USA vs Japan
Pacific Nations Cup 2025 (Pool B)
Heart Health Park, Sacramento
Saturday 25 October
Japan vs Australia
Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025
National Stadium, Tokyo
Saturday 1 November
Japan vs South Africa
Lipovitan D Tour 2025
London
Saturday 8 November
Ireland vs Japan
Autumn Nations Series
Dublin
Saturday 15 November
Wales vs Japan
Autumn Nations Series
Cardiff
Saturday 22 November
Georgia vs Japan
Venue TBC