Japan Brave Blossoms vs Georgia Preview (July 2024)

rugbyasia247 Posted On July 12, 2024

172 Views

Japan Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones has named his squad to take on Georgia on Saturday 13 July 2024 at Yurtec Stadium in Sendai.

Following a drawn series against the Maori All Blacks and an opening test loss 17-52 to England, the Brave Blossoms will want to win the match against the Georgians who themselves lost last weekend to Fiji 12-21. The Georgians had earlier this year retained the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship title for a 7th consecutive time (in which they have not lost for a run of 33 matches!).

The Japanese are ranked 12th and the Georgians (known as the Lelos) are 14th in the latest World Rugby rankings but the Brave Blossoms come into the match with a superior head-to-head record of 5-1, although the last time they played was at City of Toyota Stadium in 2018.

Eddie Jones has selected 35-year-old captain Micheal Leitch in the 2nd row with the intention of adding more pace to the back row. There are six players earning only their second cap, while two players are on debut on the bench – Takato Okabe and Taiki Koyama.

The half-back combination sees Naoto Saito at scrumhalf, who has signed for European giants Toulouse next season, partner with Seungsin Lee at flyhalf.

Japan Brave BLossoms vs Georgia 2023

Georgia is coached by former England international Richard Cockerill who spent a year in the England set-up as one of Eddie Jones’ assistant coaches and was interim head coach in December 2022 before Steve Borthwick took over. He has made five personnel changes and two positional switches compared to the side that lost to Fiji.

Mikheil Alania makes only his second start in his 14th test as scrum-half with Luka Matkava reverting back to fly-half from playing full-back last week.

Andrea Piardi (Italy) is the match referee.

The Brave Blossoms face Italy next on Sunday 21 July 2024 before competing in the Pacific Nations Cup 2024 in August and September, while Georgia travel to Australia next.

RESULT Japan 23-25 Georgia

Match Permutations

Japan could be replaced in 12th place if they fail to beat Georgia and Samoa beat Spain.
Georgia could also move up by a couple of places if they beat the Brave Blossoms and other results go their way.