Brave Blossoms Side Named to Face Wallabies in Osaka
The JRFU have named the Brave Blossoms side to take on Australia this Saturday, August 8 in their Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025 at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Higashi-Osaka. Kicking off at 19:05 local time, the fixture is the first in a two-match series which will see Australia host Japan next Saturday in Townsville for the return leg.
Both Japan and Australia come into the match off the back of some mixed results in their first three rounds of the 2026 Nations Championship. After defeating Italy 27-10 in Tokyo, Japan fell 20-36 to Ireland in Newcastle, Australia before returning home to Tokyo to face France in a match they lost 15-42.
Australia meanwhile also recorded two losses and one win in a similar fashion to Japan after falling to both Ireland 31-33 and France 26-42, before securing a thumping 57-10 win over Italy in Perth.
Looking towards Osaka, Saturday’s match will be the eighth contested between the two nations in a rivalry that goes back 51 years with the first meeting between the two sides at the Sydney Cricket Ground back in August 1975. Australia won that match 37 – 7 and since then has remained unbeaten against the Brave Blossoms.
However, the margins have been getting much closer in recent years. In Oita in 2021, Australia held on to record a gutsy 23-32 victory while in their most recent encounter in Tokyo last year, Australia held on against a fast-finishing Brave Blossoms side for a 15-19 win. Australia will be well aware of this trend and will be desperate to maintain their clean sheet against Japan.
Conditions are expected to be hot and steamy, with evening temperatures in Osaka hovering around the 30-degree mark alongside the high humidity of a Japanese summer. With the gap between the two sides narrowing with every test, the result on Saturday will likely come down to which team can handle the conditions better.
Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones has made several changes to the side that lost to France in Tokyo three weeks ago. Five players come into the matchday 23, while Jones has also reworked his starting forward pack and rotated his front row starters and reserves. The effervescent and tireless Kanji Shimokawa comes into the side on the openside flank, while the equally industrious Jack Cornelsen moves from number eight to the second row. Cornelsen will pack down alongside Captain Warner Dearns, with Harry Hockings moving to the bench.
In the backs, Brave Blossoms fans will be delighted by the return of Waseda University flyer Yoshitaka Yazaki as the reserve fullback, following a long layoff due to injury. His inclusion brings the number of university players in the team to three, with rookie flyhalf Ryunosuke Ito from Meiji University and loosehead prop Sojiro Otsuka from Kwansei Gakuin University set to earn their fourth Test caps on the bounce.
In fact, 11 players in Jones’ matchday 23 turned out last year against the Wallabies in Tokyo. After coming so close and falling just short, there will be a sense of unfinished business that these players will want to set straight. Whichever way the match goes, it is shaping up to be a massive contest in the rugby cauldron of Hanazono which, based on current ticket sales, is likely to be a sell-out.
Commenting ahead of the match, Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones said:
“We’ve selected a team for this particular game. Both teams know the conditions, and we believe these are the best 23 to handle those conditions and play against an experienced Australian team. Our record against them has been seven official test matches and we don’t have a win yet, so this is a fantastic opportunity for Japan to create some history.
“We saw last year that we’re getting closer and believe that if there is a gap now, it’s going to be minimised again this weekend. There is a lot of pressure on Australia. They’ve got a very experienced team, and they will be expected to win, so we want to make sure we’re putting pressure on them right from the start.
The match will be broadcast live in Japan on Nippon TV from 19:00 and J Sports 1 from 18:30. It will also be streamed live and available via catch-up on Hulu from 19:00 and J Sports On Demand from 18:30. Fans looking to catch the match live at Hanazono Stadium can still pick up the last remaining tickets via the JRFU’s English-language ticketing website at: https://quick.pia.jp/japan-rugby_en/.
| No. | Name | Club Team | Graduate | Height cm | Weight kg | DOB | Cap |
| 1 | Takato OKABE | YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES | Kwansei Gakuin Univ. | 180 | 105 | 1995/2/19 | 11 |
| 2 | Hayate ERA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Teikyo Univ. | 172 | 106 | 2001/9/18 | 9 |
| 3 | Shuhei TAKEUCHI | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ. | 183 | 115 | 1997/12/9 | 26 |
| 4 | Jack CORNELSEN | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Univ. of Queensland | 195 | 110 | 1994/10/13 | 32 |
| 5 | Warner DEARNS (C) | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Ryutsu Keizai Univ. KASHIWA HS. | 201 | 117 | 2002/4/11 | 35 |
| 6 | Ben GUNTER | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Brisbane Boys’ College | 195 | 120 | 1997/10/24 | 20 |
| 7 | Kanji SHIMOKAWA | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 188 | 105 | 1999/1/17 | 25 |
| 8 | Faulua MAKISI | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Tenri Univ. | 187 | 112 | 1997/1/20 | 23 |
| 9 | Naoto SAITO | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Waseda Univ. | 165 | 73 | 1997/8/26 | 31 |
| 10 | Ryunosuke ITO | Meiji Univ. | Kokugakuin Univ. Tochigi HS. | 172 | 77 | 2004/11/20 | 3 |
| 11 | Taira MAIN | RICOH BlackRams Tokyo | Gose Industria HS. | 178 | 89 | 2000/9/5 | 3 |
| 12 | Samisoni TUA | URAYASU D-Rocks | Setsunan Univ. | 182 | 108 | 1995/5/24 | 4 |
| 13 | Dylan RILEY | SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS | Bond Univ. | 187 | 102 | 1997/5/2 | 41 |
| 14 | Kazuma UEDA | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Kindai Univ. | 177 | 87 | 2002/12/4 | 5 |
| 15 | Takuro MATSUNAGA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Tenri Univ. | 172 | 82 | 1998/8/13 | 8 |
| 16 | Mamoru HARADA | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Keio Univ. | 175 | 101 | 1999/4/15 | 14 |
| 17 | Sojiro OTSUKA | Kwansei Gakuin Univ. | Kwansei Gakuin Senior HS. | 178 | 110 | 2004/7/5 | 3 |
| 18 | Keijiro TAMEFUSA | Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY | Meiji Univ. | 180 | 108 | 2001/9/3 | 23 |
| 19 | Harry HOCKINGS | TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH | Univ. of Queensland | 208 | 124 | 1998/7/28 | 5 |
| 20 | Michael LEITCH | TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO | Tokai Univ. | 189 | 113 | 1988/10/7 | 95 |
| 21 | Tiennan COSTLEY | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | International Pacific Univ. | 192 | 102 | 2000/6/14 | 14 |
| 22 | Shunsuke UENOBO | KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS | Tenri Univ. | 183 | 86 | 2003/9/29 | 1 |
| 23 | Yoshitaka YAZAKI | Waseda Univ. | Toin Gakuen HS. | 180 | 86 | 2004/5/12 | 9 |