Japan Get Set to Face Georgia in Final Test of 2025
Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones has named his side to take on Georgia this Saturday, November 22 at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi. Kicking off at 16:00 local time, 21:00 JST the match will be the Brave Blossoms last outing of their Lipovitan D Tour 2025 and their final test of the year.
Two years into a complete rebuild under Jones, Japan have shown definite progress throughout the year. After having fallen short by just one point in their last-minute defeat to Wales last weekend in Cardiff, the match against Georgia offers a huge opportunity for the team to finish the year on a high.
It won’t be an easy task with the Lelos playing in front of their passionate home crowd. Famous for their physicality and imposing forward pack, Georgia will look to establish physical dominance against a Japanese side coming into their fifth straight test match in as many weeks.
The Brave Blossoms arrived in Tbilisi match hardened and with the benefit of a settled team and established combinations across key positions. This will be tempered against their likely travel fatigue and the attritional impact of having played four massive test matches in the lead up to Saturday, including their Wembley outing against the World Champion Springboks. Furthermore, Georgia currently sit two places higher on World Rugby’s global rankings at 11th, compared to Japan at 13th.
Having come through last week’s match relatively unscathed, Jones has picked a side with just three new players moving into the matchday 23 that faced Wales. At fullback, Sam Green, who last played against the Wallabies in Tokyo comes in to replace young gun Yoshitaka Yazaki who has returned to Japan to rejoin Waseda University ahead of the Japan University Championships.
Yuki Ikeda comes onto the reserves bench as a backline reserve for just his second cap after having last played in the Pacific Nations Cup Final against Fiji back in September. He is joined on the pine by debutant Shu Yamamoto. Known typically as a lock forward, Yamamoto joins Harry Hockings as the second lock replacement. With two locks on the bench and two backrow forwards who also play second row in Jack Cornelsen at number eight and Tyler Paul on the blindside, it will be interesting to see how Jones balances his backrow and second row as the match wears on.
The other notable change sees Kazuma Ueda promoted from the bench to the right wing in just his second test match after acquitting himself well last weekend in Cardiff. Aside from fullback, he is the only other change it what is becoming a well-established Brave Blossoms backline.
Commenting ahead of the match, Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“This is an important test for us. We’ve had a really good, exacting tour; playing against the top countries in the world and now we get the chance to play against Georgia who are just above us in the rankings. We’ve had a good preparation this week. Though we lost a couple of players through injury from the last game, the team has prepared really well, and I anticipate that we’re going to play a really physical and fast game. We want to make sure that we go out from the start and impose ourselves on Georgia. They’re a good, tough and particularly forward oriented team; so we know where the challenge is coming from and we’re prepared for it.”
The match will be broadcast live in Japan on J Sports 1 and streamed live and available via catch-up on J Sports On Demand from 20:30 on Saturday night. It will also be streamed live and available via catch-up on WOWWOW On Demand from 20:45.
| No. | Name | Club Team | Graduate | Heightcm | Weightkg | DOB | Cap |
| 1 | Kenta KOBAYASHI | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 181 | 113 | 1999/6/2 | 8 |
| 2 | Kenji SATO | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Waseda Univ. | 177 | 108 | 2003/1/4 | 8 |
| 3 | Shuhei TAKEUCHI | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ. | 183 | 115 | 1997/12/9 | 23 |
| 4 | Epineri ULUIVITI | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars | Ratu Kadavulevu School | 196 | 122 | 1996/7/7 | 10 |
| 5 | Warner DEARNS (C) | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Ryutsu Keizai Univ. KASHIWA HS. | 201 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 31 |
| 6 | Tyler PAUL | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Nelson Mandela Univ. | 195 | 111 | 1995/1/20 | 3 |
| 7 | Kanji SHIMOKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 188 | 105 | 1999/1/17 | 22 |
| 8 | Jack CORNELSEN | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Univ. of Queensland | 195 | 110 | 1994/10/13 | 28 |
| 9 | Naoto SAITO | Stade Toulousain | Waseda Univ. | 165 | 73 | 1997/8/26 | 27 |
| 10 | Seungsin LEE (VC) | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Osaka Korean HS. | 176 | 86 | 2001/1/13 | 28 |
| 11 | Tomoki OSADA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Waseda Univ. | 179 | 90 | 1999/11/25 | 25 |
| 12 | Charlie LAWRENCE | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars | Hamilton Boys’HS. | 170 | 89 | 1998/5/27 | 8 |
| 13 | Dylan RILEY (VC) | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Bond Univ. | 187 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 37 |
| 14 | Kazuma UEDA | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Kindai Univ. | 177 | 87 | 2002/12/4 | 1 |
| 15 | Sam GREENE | SHIZUOKA BlueRevs | Brisbane Grammar HS. | 178 | 85 | 1994/8/16 | 5 |
| 16 | Shodai HIRAO | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Kwansei Gakuin Univ. | 174 | 103 | 2002/10/11 | 2 |
| 17 | Sho FURUHATA | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Daito Bunka Univ. | 185 | 118 | 1996/12/10 | 1 |
| 18 | Keijiro TAMEFUSA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 180 | 108 | 2001/9/3 | 19 |
| 19 | Harry HOCKINGS | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Univ. of Queensland | 208 | 124 | 1998/7/28 | 1 |
| 20 | Shu YAMAMOTO | RICOH BlackRams Tokyo | Kindai Univ. | 190 | 96 | 1999/6/1 | 0 |
| 21 | Kenta FUKUDA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Meiji Univ. | 173 | 83 | 1996/12/19 | 7 |
| 22 | Shinya KOMURA | TOYOTA VERBLITZ | Teikyo Univ. | 180 | 92 | 2002/5/28 | 2 |
| 23 | Yuki IKEDA | RICOH BlackRams Tokyo | Tokai Univ. | 187 | 100 | 1995/5/21 | 1 |
*(C) Captain
*(VC) Vice Captain
Japan National Team Autumn Match Schedule
Saturday 18 October
JAPAN XV vs Australia A (Uncapped)
7-71 (L)
Asahi Super Dry CHALLENGE MATCH 2025
YODOKO Sakura Stadium, Osaka
Friday 24 October
Hong Kong China vs JAPAN XV (Uncapped)
14-59 (W)
Kai Tak Stadium, Hong Kong
Saturday 25 October
Japan vs Australia
15-19 (L)
Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025
National Stadium, Tokyo
Saturday 1 November
Japan vs South Africa
7-61 (L)
Lipovitan D Tour 2025
Wembley Stadium, London
Saturday 8 November
Ireland vs Japan
41-10 (L)
Lipovitan D Tour 2025
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Saturday 15 November
Wales vs Japan
24-23 (L)
Lipovitan D Tour 2025
Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Saturday 22 November
Kick-off 16:00 local time (21:00 JST)
Georgia vs Japan
Lipovitan D Tour 2025
Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi