Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Interim head coach Mark Hammett has named his Japan team to face Canada on Saturday at BC Place in Vancouver. The team is captained by centre Harumichi Tatekawa and includes a further eight members of the 2015 World Cup side. Three players are set to make their international debut: flanker Yoshiya Hosoda and wingers Yasutaka Sasakura and Mifiposeti Paea. A fourth, scrumhalf Kaito Shigeno, is on the bench.
Japan have opted to rest a number of their top players for the week ahead of their two-game series against Scotland. Injuries have deprived them of captain Michael Leitch and fullback Ayumu Goromaru, and a handful of speedsters including Sunwolves try-scoring king Akihito Yamada are now training with the 7s squad in preparation for the Olympics. Record caps winner Hitoshi Ono is serving a suspension earned while on Super Rugby duty.
The side is comprised entirely of professional players, with just over half taking part in the current Super Rugby season. Those who are not come from the Japan Top League with the exception of prop Kensuke Hatakeyama, fresh off a few months with the Newcastle Falcons in the Aviva Premiership.
A win streak of three games in Japan’s favor is on the line, with Canada unable to defeat the Brave Blossoms since 2005. Two draws and five defeats have been recorded since. Their last meeting was a 20-6 win for Japan in the 2015 Pacific Nations Cup, though both sides are much changed since.
The match kicks off at 3pm local time (6pm Eastern) and will be broadcast live on TSN.
JAPAN
1 Keita Inagaki 2 Takeshi Kizu 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama 4 Kazuhiko Usami 5 Naohiro Kotaki 6 Yoshiya Hosoda 7 Taiyo Ando 8 Kyosuke Horie 9 Fumiaki Tanaka 10 Yu Tamura 11 Yasutaka Sasakura 12 Harumichi Tatekawa (capt.) 13 Tim Bennetts 14 Mifiposeti Paea 15 Kotaro Matsushima
16 Futoshi Mori 17 Masataka Mikami 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga 19 Kotaro Yatabe 20 Shokei Kin 21 Kaito Shigeno 22 Kosei Ono 23 Rikiya Matsuda
