Japan vs New Zealand – Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2022

The Japan national men’s XVs rugby team the Brave Blossoms host the New Zealand All Blacks on Saturday 29th October 2022 for the Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2022 with a sellout crowd expected at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

The Japanese team players were recently involved in a three-match series playing as Japan XV against the touring Australia A team, which they lost 1-2 overall. The matches were high-scoring with the Japanese winning the final game 52-48 and they know they will need to tighten up if they want to avoid a massive score from the All Blacks, who themselves have been under fire this year but still claimed the Rugby Championship 2022.

The home team will also be buoyed by a potential record match attendance as 65,000 tickets have been sold for the Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2022, with the previous record of just over 57,000 fans recorded when France toured Japan in July of this year.

The two teams have met on six occasions but Japan has yet to register a win against New Zealand.

Brave Blossoms Squad – Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2022

JRFU Men’s XVs Head Coach Jamie Joseph has announced Atsushi Sakate as captain and he is set to earn his 31^st test cap at hooker. Sakate is joined by the experienced, 42-cap Keita Inagaki at loosehead and 18-cap Jiwon Gu at tighthead in the Japanese front row.

Joseph said “Coming into this weekend, the energy within the team has been really positive and we’re excited for the match. Against Australia A we learnt the need to be consistent when the pressure comes on. In the last match, we were up by 20 points and through some mental lapses, we allowed them back into the game and they put us under real pressure. This week we need to ensure we’ve got really experienced, highly competent players coming on during those tough parts of the match, so that’s been a big driver with our selections on the bench.”

A number of regulars are in the squad including, a strong backrow which features 22-cap Kazuki Himeno at openside, 75-cap Michael Leith at blindside, and 124-kilogram 12-cap Tevita Tatafu at number eight.

Yutake Nagare starts at halfback (scrumhalf) alongside emerging playmaker, Takuya Yamasawa at flyhalf.  The rest of the backline is the same used by the Japan XV in their last two, non-capped fixtures against Australia A.

Joseph added: “Our focus has been on us as a team and what we can do to create pressure and opportunities for ourselves. The All Blacks like to control the game through the set piece, so we’ve done a lot of work with our scrum and lineout knowing that we’re playing a very big and experienced pack that will try and dominate us up front. We have to manage that and then, when we can create quality ball for our backs, as we showed against Australia A, we can score some quality tries as well.”

Following this match, the Brave Blossoms head to Europe to play England at Twickenham on Saturday, November 12 and France in Toulouse on Sunday, November 20th 2022.

All Blacks Squad – Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2022

Much has been made this week (and rightly so) of how the NZRU were shortsighted in setting up this fixture at the same time as their women play a key quarterfinal match at RWC 2021 in New Zealand – with the Union being roundly criticised in the media.

The NZRU, who earlier this year also had a Women’s Day PR debacle, admitted in a statement “When Japan Rugby set the kick-off time for the All Blacks Test, NZR did not take into account … that the host nation would play in the quarter-final two timeslot.”

The All Blacks selectors Ian Foster, Joe Schmidt and Jason Ryan have announced that Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Stephen Perofeta have been included in the run-on side for the first time, playing at second-five eighths and fullback respectively.

Foster said “This Northern Tour is going to be huge. We see four incredibly tough Tests ahead and this one against Japan will ask some serious questions of us. We want to show that we are ready to respond. We want to show that we have put in the work required to lift our game even further after the Rugby Championship.”

He added of the match in Japan, “We have a lot of respect for Japanese rugby, the fans and the culture of this country as a whole. What an exciting way to kick off the next part of our journey as a group.”

The strong team also includes halfback Finlay Christie (second Test) with Aaron Smith on the bench – if Smith plays he will equal Dan Carter as the sixth-most capped All Black with 112 Tests.

Anton Lienert-Brown also returns to the squad following an injury with Same Cane captaining the team.

Match official – Japan vs NZ

Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) will take charge of the two teams playing each other for the first time. He did oversee New Zealand’s historic loss to Argentina in The Rugby Championship in August and refereed Japan in their 60-5 loss in November 2021 to Ireland.

Image Credit: NZRU

• Date & Time: 29 October (Sat) 2022 14:50 kick-off (local time)
• Venue: National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan

Match Permutations World Rugby Rankings

• Japan must beat New Zealand by more than 15 points to climb above a beaten Australia into ninth place in the World Rugby Rankings.
• New Zealand will fall one place to fifth if beaten by Japan, swapping places with England in the rankings.
• The All Blacks cannot improve in fourth place even if they are victorious.
• Japan cannot fall from 10th place in defeat this weekend.

Asian Rugby Tournaments and Interviews 2022

• Thailand Women’s 7s Rugby “Have That Belief” Says Head Coach Lote Raikabula.
• Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2022 – Bangkok Review.
• HKRU Men’s XV Squad Announced – RWC 2023 Final Qualification Tournament.
• Ollie Phillips – High Ambitions for China Men’s Rugby 7s.