Japan U20 Suffer Narrow Loss to Scotland at Junior World Championships
Japan U20 fell to Scotland 43-32 in their final Pool B match at the Junior World Championships in Georgia on Tuesday. While the 11-point margin might have suggested a more comfortable win for the Scots, Japan trailed by just four points with a minute remaining on the clock. Having just scored a penalty kick and once again deep in attack in their opponent’s half, Japanese hearts were broken when the Scottish flyhalf broke away for an intercept try to seal the victory for the men in blue.
It was a moment of joy for the Scots and one of despair for what might have been for Japan, but in the true spirit of rugby, both sides came together after the final hooter in a show of camaraderie and respect.
In what was a highly entertaining match throughout, Japan trailed by 19-0 within the first 20 minutes. Just like their first two outings against New Zealand and Italy, the Japanese pack confronted a much larger opposition forward pack, including Scotland’s 136-kilogram tighthead prop. While the light but technically capable Japanese scrum had enjoyed a 100% success rate off their own scrum feeds against the Kiwis and Italians, they struggled against the surging power of the big Scottish scrum.
Their troubles at scrum time were also matched at the line-out where they lost seven of their 20 lineout feeds, handing over possession to the Scots at key moments of attack. While it was clear that Japan lost the match in the set piece, that was the only area of their game where one could find fault. For the rest of it – their brave defence, enterprising ball-in-hand attack and their tactical kicking – they were simply superb. The fact that they trailed by just four points with a minute to go, despite their spluttering scrum and lineout, was testament to just how good the other elements of their game was.
Commenting following the match, Japan U20 Head Coach Naoya Okubo said:
“Having suffered a heavy defeat to Scotland U20 back in 2024, we came into the match with the aim of being a better version of ourselves from two years ago. Seeing the growth and development of the team was obvious. A major positive from today was that when we had possession, we were able to push the opposition back. We will now focus on the Semi Final in which we will have to improve our set piece play. We will continue building as a team and fight through our remaining two matches.”
Having failed to win a match in their pool, Japan will now compete for 13th place alongside the USA, Spain and Uruguay. They will take on the USA in their Semi-Final on Sunday, July 12 in Kutaisi with an 18:00 kick off local time (23:00 JST). The result of this fixture will decide whether they play in either the 13th or 15th place play-off, the result of which will determine their final placing in the 16-team competition.
Running from June 27 to July 19, the 2026 World Rugby Junior World Championship brings together the world’s best U20 national teams to fight it out for the right to be crowned 2026 Junior World Champions.