Rugby in Japan Vol.7, No.23

 

Contents:

¡       ANZ Pacific Nations Cup 2010 – North Harbour 23 d Japan XV 19

¡       Japan A in Scotland & Spain – Games 2 & 3

¡       Odds & Sods:

s     IRB Ranking: 13 (70.59, 7 June 2010)

s     The Think-tank:

¡       Looking Ahead:

s     The Endless Possibilities for November

 

ANZ Pacific Nations Cup 2010

June 2010

 

Now in its fifth year, the International Rugby Board (IRB) funded ANZ Pacific Nations Cup 2010 involves the three island nations Fiji, Samoa and Tonga along with Japan. New Zealand and Australia have not committed teams for 2010.

 

In 2006 this tournament kicked off as the Pacific Five Nations and involved Fiji, Japan, the Junior All Blacks (JAB), Samoa and Tonga. Australia A joined the competition in 2007 and the tournament name changed to its present moniker of Pacific Nations Cup. The same format was maintained for 2008 with the exception being the Maori were the New Zealand representative side rather than the Junior All Blacks.

 

In 2009, the Junior All Blacks (JAB) replaced the Maori as the New Zealand representative team, while Australia A did not participate in last year’s tournament. The 2009 tournament was condensed with the majority of the games played in Fiji rather than the home and away format of the three previous years. Also in 2009, ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) came on board as the presenting sponsor for the tournament.

 

This year, Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga will take part in the ANZ Pacific Nations Cup 2010. Except for the opening game between Fiji and Japan at Churchill Park in Lautoka, Fiji, Samoa and the Samoan Rugby Union will host the 2010 competition with the remaining five games slated for Apia Park in the capital city of Apia. With the tournament again largely being hosted in one country, refereeing and coaching workshops along junior rugby clinics are planned for the two week duration of the event. This is also the first time for Samoa to host a major international 15-a-side rugby tournament. The occasion is also a fillip for Samoa after the 2009 Samoa Earthquake, an 8.1M submarine earthquake and resulting tsunami struck the area on 29 September causing significant damage and loss of life across the region.

 

 

Previous Winners

The New Zealand representative sides have won all four previous titles.

2009: The Junior All Blacks. The JAB again took the PNC title undefeated on 19 points. Fiji were runner-up on 14 points followed by Samoa on 12 points, while Japan finished fourth on 6 points with one win and three losses. Tonga took the wooden spoon on one point.

2008: The New Zealand Maori. The Maori took the PNC title undefeated with 21 points when they beat Australia A 21-18 in the final game in Sydney. Australia A finished runner-up on 20 points. Japan finished fifth on 7 points with one win and four losses.

2007: The Junior All Blacks. The JAB took the PNC title undefeated with 25 points garnering maximum points in each game. Australia A finished a distant runner-up on 16 points after they lost to the JAB and drew with Fiji. Japan finished last on 4 points with one win and four losses.

2006: The Junior All Blacks. The JAB took the P5N title undefeated with 20 points with maximum points in each game. Japan finished last on 0 points with four losses.

 

 

ANZ Pacific Nations Cup 2010 Schedule

Round

Date

Teams

Venue

Kick-off

Round 1

Saturday, 12 June 2010

Samoa v Tonga

Apia Park, Apia

15:10

 

 

Fiji v Japan

Churchill Park, Lautoka

15:10

 

 

 

 

 

Round 2

Saturday, 19 June 2010

Samoa v Japan

Apia Park, Apia

13:10

 

 

Fiji v Tonga

Apia Park, Apia

16:10

 

 

 

 

 

Round 3

Saturday, 26 June 2010

Fiji v Samoa

Apia Park, Apia

13:10

 

 

Japan v Tonga

Apia Park, Apia

16:10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan will fly out of Narita Airport on Saturday 29 May 2010 for New Zealand where they will play a warm-up game against North Harbour at the North Harbour Stadium in New Zealand on the evening of Friday 4 June 2010. From Auckland, the squad will transfer to Fiji on Saturday 5 June to prepare for their opening game against Fiji in Lautoka the following Saturday.

 

North Harbour 23 d Japan XV 19

 

North Harbour 23 – Tries: Matt Luamanu and Chris Smylie; Conversions: Ben Botica 4; Penalties: Mike Harris 2, Ben Botica d.

Japan 19 – Tries: Shota Horie, Alisi Tupuailei and Koji Wada; Conversions: Shaun Webb, James Arlidge.

 

Date: Friday, 4 June 2010.

Venue: North Harbour Stadium, Albany.

Kick-off: 7:35 PM (local NZ time).

Referee: Jonathon White (NZ).

Attendance: 6,700.

Halftime: North Harbour 16 – Japan 0.

Yellow Card: Toshizumi Kitagawa (Japan No.5, repeated team infringements).

 

 

Japan XV

Pos.

Name

Club

Age

Hgt/Wgt

1

Naoki KAWAMATA

Sanyo Wild Knights

24

184/118

2

Shota HORIE

Sanyo Wild Knights

24

180/104

3

Shinsuke NAKAMURA

Suntory Sungoliath

22

190/115

4

Hitoshi ONO

Toshiba Brave Lupus

32

192/105

5

Toshizumi KITAGAWA

Toyota Verblitz

29

195/110

6

Takashi KIKUTANI (c)

Toyota Verblitz

30

187/100

7

Sione VATUVEI

Sanyo Wild Knights

27

189/100

8

Koliniasi Ryu HOLANI

Sanyo Wild Knights

28

188/111

9

Fumiaki TANAKA

Sanyo Wild Knights

25

166/75

10

Shaun WEBB

Coca-Cola Red Sparks

28

180/90

11

Hirotoki ONOZAWA

Suntory Sungoliath

32

180/87

12

Ryan NICHOLAS

Suntory Sungoliath

30

192/100

13

Alisi TUPUAILEI

Canon Eagles

29

187/116

14

Kosuke ENDO

Toyota Verblitz

29

186/90

15

Kaoru MATSUSHITA

Toyota Verblitz

26

185/86

 

 

 

 

 

16

Hiroki YUHARA

Toshiba Brave Lupus

26

173/105

17

Kensuke HATAKEYAMA

Suntory Sungoliath

24

178/122

18

Shinya MAKABE

Suntory Sungoliath

23

192/110

19

Michael LEITCH

Tokai Univ.

21

190/103

20

Koji WADA

Toyota Verblitz

25

173/78

21

James ARLIDGE

Newport Dragons (Wales)

30

187/93

22

Ryo KANAZAWA

Ricoh Black Rams

28

174/86

 

 

North Harbour

Pos.

Name

Club

Age

Hgt/Wgt

1

Mike Reid (c)

Marist

24

184/114

2

Mike Mayhew

Northcote

23

188/111

3

Taione Vea

Silverdale

21

182/130

4

Shane Neville

Takapuna

28

198/112

5

Filo Paulo

Mahurangi

22

198/114

6

Richard Mayhew

Northcote

24

191/108

7

Scott Uren

Marist

27

180/98

8

Matt Luamanu

North Shore

25

190/120

9

Chris Smylie

Massey

28

179/93

10

Mike Harris

Northcote

21

185/98

11

Rudi Wulf

Marist

26

189/98

12

Brendon Watt

North Shore

27

175/88

13

Jack Tarrant

Takapuna

30

193/90

14

Ken Pisi

Massey

21

180/86

15

Jack McPhee

Glenfield

23

188/92

 

 

 

 

 

16

Manu Leiataua

 

23

182/105

17

Nic Mayhew

Northcote

21

182/110

18

Irwin Finau

Silverdale

25

194/105

19

Malakai Ravulo

Helensville

26

180/107

20

Nalu Tuigamala

East Coast Bays

21

165/89

21

Ben Botica

North Shore

20

177/93

22

Nafi Tuitavake

Massey

21

178/92

 

 

In their final warm-up game before the ANZ Pacific Nations Cup 2010 opener against Fiji in Lautoka on Saturday 12 June 2010, a Japan XV side went down to North Harbour 23-19. The local side got out to a 16-0 lead at the halftime break before the Japanese came back with three second half tries to come within a whisker of stealing the match.

 

Number eight Matt Luamanu scored the only try of the first half while five-eighth Mike Harris kicked two penalties with his replacement Ben Botica adding a conversion and a penalty to account for the sixteen North Harbour points. The home side then stretched the lead to 23-0 in the first few minutes of the second stanza after halfback Chris Smylie crossed the whitewash and Botica added the extras. However, Japan started their fight back with tries to Shota Horie, Alisi Tupuailei and Koji Wada while Shaun Webb and James Arlidge kicked two of the three conversions between them.

 

In the final wash up, North Harbour led from the kick-off to the fulltime whistle but the Japan XV put in a full 80 minute performance in a perfect hit-out before the PNC. In an interesting note, former Japan and Suntory back Jack Tarrant lined up in the No.13 jersey for North Harbour after earning seven caps for Japan last spring on the wing and at fullback. After scoring fifty tries across the four tests of the recent HSBC Asian Five Nations tournament and only conceding four, the Japan side well and truly had their defence tested for the first time this season in the lead-up to the much more physical games against Fiji, Samoa and Tonga to come.

 

 

Japan A Tour to Scotland and Spain

 

On 29 April 2010 the Japan Rugby Football Union announced details of the Japan A tour to Scotland and Spain over May and June 2010. Under head coach Masahiro Kunda, Japan A will tour Scotland and Spain on a three match tour from 19 May to 7 June 2010.

On 2 May 2010, flanker Yoshitaka Nakayama (Toyota) had to withdraw from the squad and his place was taken by Young-Dae Kim from Ricoh.

On 9 May 2010, prop Hiroshi Yamashita (Kobe) and halfback Chul-Won Kim (Kintetsu) had to withdraw from the squad due to injuries.

On 12 May 2010, wing Kenichiro Iwamoto (Toyota) withdrew with injury while prop Yusuke Nagae (Ricoh), centre Tomohiro Semba (Toshiba) and wing Tomoki Kitagawa (Sanyo) were added to the squad.

On 31 May 2010, prop Tateo Kanai (Suntory) and hooker Ryuhei Arita (Waseda Univ) were forced to quit the tour due to injury. Hooker Heiichiro Ito (Waseda Univ) was called into the squad at the completion of the U20 Junior World Rugby Trophy in Moscow.

 

On Wednesday 19 May 2010 the squad flew out of Narita for Edinburgh via Amsterdam and before departure manager Yuichi Ueno commented, “Although we have had very limited time to prepare the squad we expect them to give 100% on tour. The squad is mostly a mixture of university students, younger Top League players along with a number of more experienced players as we look to groom players for the next World Cup and beyond.” Head coach Masahiro Kunda also commented on the fact that there was only a short time to get the squad ready but added that the future of Japanese rugby rests on their young shoulders, as well as the likes of the current Japan U20 squad now competing in the IRB Junior World Trophy Tournament in Moscow. Finally, captain Masakazu Irie added, “Despite the lack of preparation time, this tour is not just for the experience but the team will be expected to be highly competitive against Scotland XV.”

 

Match Results

 

Game 1:

Japan Select 35 d Currie 17

Date: Tuesday, 26 May 2010.

Venue: Malleny Park, Currie RFC.

Kick-off: 19:30 (local Scotland time).

 

 

Game 2:

Scotland XV 24 d Japan A 5

Date: Tuesday, 1 June 2010.

Venue: Murrayfield.

Kick-off: 19:00 (local Scotland time).

Referee: James Jones (Wales).

Attendance: 8,186.

 

Scotland XV 24 – Tries: Alex Grove, John Barday 2, Simon Danielli; Conversions: Phil Godman 2 d.

Japan 5 – Try: Young-Dae Kim.

 

Scotland XV: 1- Allan Jacobsen, 2- Ross Ford, 3- Moray Low, 4- Scott MacLeod, 5- Jim Hamilton, 6- Kelly Brown, 7- John Barday, 8- Johnnie Beattie, 9- Mike Blair (c), 10- Phil Godman, 11- Simon Danielli, 12- Alex Grove, 13- Nick de Luca, 14- Sean Lamont, 15- Hugo Southwell. Reserves: 16- Fergus Thomson, 17- Geoff Cross, 18- Al Kellock, 19- Graeme Morrison, 20- Mark McMillan, 21- Max Evans and 22- Jim Thompson.

 

Japan A: 1- Hiroshige Tezuka, 2- Hirotaka Hirahara, 3- Yusuke Nagae, 4- Tim Bond, 5- Tomoaki Taniguchi, 6- Koji Shinozuka, 7- Young-Dae Kim, 8- Sioeli Iongi, 9- Shuhei Oshima, 10- Masakazu Irie (c), 11- Paea Mifiposeti, 12- Aisea Havea, 13- Takayuki Yamauchi, 14- Yuta Imamura, 15- Ayumu Goromaru.

Reserves: 16- Tomohiro Semba, 17- Takahiro Doi, 18- Eiri Nakata, 19- Hidetoshi Mine, 20- Nathan Anderson, 21- Kenji Shomen and 22- Tomoki Kitagawa.

 

After beating local amateur club side Currie 35-17 in their opening game on tour, Japan A were given a much sterner test against Andy Robinson’s hybrid Scotland XV side at Murrayfield  on Tuesday evening. The side was a combination of players for the full Scotland squad and the A side with the former embarking on a two-test tour of Argentina over June while the latter head to Romania to defend their title in the fifth edition of the IRB Nations Cup.

 

Although the Scottish side was a bit rusty they still only managed to dispose of the second string Japan side 24-5, outscoring the visitors four tries to one. For a number of players in this Scottish side they would have had distant memories of the last time Japan toured Scotland in the 100-8 demolition of Japan in Perth way back in November 2004. Allan Jacobsen, Sean Lamont, Hugo Southwell, Scott MacLeod, Mike Blair and Graeme Morrison all turned out in that game, but there were no survivors of that nightmare in this Japan A side, in fact lock Hitoshi Ono is the only Japanese player from that tour still wearing national colours.

 

All-in-all, it was a far better night at the office for this Japan side as they contained the damage to a quite respectable score line. Centre Alex Grove opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the first half with the first try of the match that was duly converted by five-eighth Phil Godman for a 7-0 lead. However, this was to be the only score in the first forty minutes with the home side taking this lead into the Murrayfield sheds at the halftime break.

 

Scotland XV were next to score with their second try coming just after the resumption of play when flanker John Barday muscled his way across the Japanese goal line. Godman again added the extras to double the lead to 14-0. Barday picked up his double just short of the hour mark after some solid work by the Scottish forwards, though this time Godman could not land the conversion, 19-0 to the Scotland XV. Wing Simon Danielli scored the fourth try in the 73rd minute and although the conversion was again unsuccessful, the home side had the game wrapped up at 24-0. Japan managed to get on the board late in proceedings with a consolation try to flanker Young-Dae Kim to close out the game 24-5.

 

After the game, Robinson said, “We’ve trained hard for the last three days and this was a very good exercise, exactly what we needed.”

 

 

Game 3:

Japan A 60 d Spain President’s XV 3

Date: Saturday, 5 June 2010.

Venue: Valladolid, Spain.

Kick-off: 6:00 PM (local Spain time).

 

Japan A 60 – Tries: Paea Mifiposeti 3, Masahiro Tsuiki 2, Hirotaka Hirahara 2, Koji Shinozuka and Kenji Shomen ; Conversions: Ayumu Goromaru 6; Penalty: Goromaru d.

Spain President’s XV 3 – Penalty: Agustin Gomez.

 

Spain President’s XV: 1- Ion Insausti, 2- Unai Lasa, 3- David Gugernadze, 4- David Barrera, 5- Anibal Bonan (c), 6- Florent Mendez, 7- Lionel Pardo, 8- Alejandro Ortega, 9- Mickael Lopez, 10- Santiago Fernandez, 11- Sergio Fernandez, 12- Ignacio Gutierrez, 13- Sergi Aubanell, 14- Agustin Gomez, 15- Eduardo Martin. Reserves: 16- Juan Anaya, 17- Francisco Blanco, 18- Javier Miranda, 19- Jesus Recuerda, 20- Benjamin Pardo, 21- Marc Puigbert, 22- Koldo Barandiaran and 23- Damian Elgoyhen.

 

Japan A: 1- Yusuke Nagae, 2- Hirotaka Hirahara, 3- Takahiro Doi, 4- Hidetoshi Mine, 5- Tomoaki Taniguchi, 6- Koji Shinozuka, 7- Young-Dae Kim, 8- Sioeli Iongi, 9- Shuhei Oshima, 10- Masakazu Irie (c), 11- Masahiro Tsuiki, 12- Tomohiro Semba, 13- Takayuki Yamauchi, 14- Tomoki Kitagawa, 15- Ayumu Goromaru.

Reserves: 16- Heiichiro Ito, 17- Hiroshige Tezuka, 18- Tim Bond, 19- Yoichi Iijima, 20- Nathan Anderson, 21- Yuta Imamura, 22- Paea Mifiposeti and 23- Kenji Shomen.

 

In the final game on tour, the Japan A side defeated a Spain President’s XV in Valladolid in north-central Spain. The visitors led 17-0 at the break after first half tries to hooker Hirotaka Hirahara and wing Masahiro Tsuiki, but the second string Japan side added a further seven unanswered second half tries to push out the final score line to 60-3. The only points for the home side in the match came in the 14th minute of the second half with a penalty to wing Agustin Gomez. Paea Mifiposeti replaced Tsuiki midway through the second half and in his time on the field scored a hat-trick of tries while Tsuiki and Hirahara both picked up doubles. Fullback Ayumu Goromaru converted six of the nine tries while also adding a penalty.

 

After the game, head coach Masahiro Kunda had the following comments, “Although the Spanish forwards were big and strong we matched them with both physical and mental toughness. This tour was on a tight schedule but it allowed the players to gain valuable international experience. Our scrum had the ascendancy against the Scotland XV side that contained many players with Six Nations experience and with a view to building towards not only the 2011 Rugby World Cup but also on to 2015 and 2019 this game against the Spanish was of great value.”

 

 

Japan A Squad

Position

Name

Club/University

Age

Hgt/Wgt

LH Props

Hiroshige TEZUKA

Kubota

27

177/106

 

Tateo KANAI

Suntory

25

176/110

Hookers

Hirotaka HIRAHARA

Coca-Cola

23

176/115

 

Ryuhei ARITA

Waseda Univ.

21

176/103

 

Heiichiro ITO

Waseda Univ.

19

174/102

TH Props

Hiroshi YAMASHITA

Kobe

24

183/120

 

Takahiro DOI

NEC

23

182/120

 

Yusuke NAGAE

Ricoh

24

171/105

Locks

Tomoaki TANIGUCHI

Toyota

27

190/124

 

Hidetoshi MINE

Coca-Cola

26

187/100

 

Eiri NAKADA

Waseda Univ.

21

193/110

Flankers

Yoshitaka NAKAYAMA

Toyota

27

184/106

 

Koji SHINOZUKA

Suntory

26

196/109

 

Yoichi IIJIMA

Sanyo

26

188/103

 

Young-Dae KIM

Ricoh

26

179/94

No8s

Sioeli IONGI

NTT Docomo

24

187/117

 

Timothy BOND

Teikyo Univ.

20

194/105

Halfbacks

Chul-Won KIM

Kintetsu

26

171/78

 

Shuhei OSHIMA

Kanto Gakuin Univ.

21

179/77

Five-eighths

Masakazu IRIE (c)

Sanyo

28

173/80

 

Nathan ANDERSON

Kobe

25

170/75

Centres

Yuta IMAMURA

Kobe

25

178/95

 

Takayuki YAMAUCHI

Toyota

23

180/85

 

Aisea HAVEA

Tenri Univ.

21

176/100

Wings

Masahiro TSUIKI

Coca-Cola

26

176/88

 

Kenichiro IWAMOTO

Toyota

26

185/85

 

Mefi PAEA

Saitama IOT

22

176/108

 

Tomohiro SEMBA

Toshiba

27

183/97

 

Tomoki KITAGAWA

Sanyo

26

174/80

Fullbacks

Kenji SHOMEN

Kobe

26

175/84

 

Ayumu GOROMARU

Yamaha

24

185/98

Head coach: Masahiro Kunda, Toshiba.

Manager: Yuichi Ueno, Ryutsu Keizai University.

 

Odds & Sods

Odds & Sods brings the reader weekly news shorts, gossip and general happenings from the world of Rugby in Japan.

 

News in Japan: Catching the headlines in Japan this week are –

 

IRB ranking on 7 June 2010 - Japan were 13 (70.59).

 

The Think-tank:

 

 

Looking Ahead

Looking Ahead gives the reader future dates for the diary and other great things to look forward to in Rugby in Japan.

 

November 2010

There is the possibility that the New Zealand Maori and maybe even the Wallabies will play against Japan in the November window month.

 

Another alternative being considered is three matches in November against Rod McQueen’s Melbourne Rebels ahead of their debut in the expanded Super 15 competition in 2011.

 

There is the added possibility that there will be no games for Japan in the autumn to allow the test level players to freshen up ahead of the very heavy schedule in 2011 leading up to the RWC in NZ late in the year.

 

Furthermore, there is also the rumour that Japan will play Italy home and away in November.

 

Plan E has Russia and also Samoa playing in Japan in November.

 

Into the Future

With the IRB working towards re-introducing traditional long tours there will be spin-offs for Japan in the lead-up to this country hosting the 2019 RWC. Although it is not set in concrete, a bevy of tier one countries are pencilled in to tour Japan with Wales touring in 2013, Scotland in 2016, Ireland in 2017 and Italy in 2018.