The Japanese ladies (Sakura) 15s rugby team beat Scotland in their second and final tour match in Europe on Sunday 24th November 2019. The result also sees them climb to a record high 12th on the World Rugby rankings.
Succesful Sakura European tour 2019
Photo Credit: BBC Sport
Last week the Sakura drew with Italy 17-17. This was an excellent result as the Italiens finished second in the 2019 Women’s Six Nations 2019.
Against Scotland, at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, the Sakura claimed an important 24-20 win. What made the away victory even more impressive was that they were losing 20-10 at half-time. In total, according to BBC Sport, Japan scored four tries through Taniguchi (2), Ebuchi, and Otsuka with Hirayama converting two of them.*
*World Rugby has the Japanese scorers as “Makoto Ebuchi, Ayasa Otsuka, Noriko Taniguchi and Seina Saito – with conversions from Minori Yamamoto and Ai Hirayama.”
Scotland had also scored 4 tries but missed all of their conversions to fall to two late tries from Japan. Last week the Scottish had lost to Wales 17-3.
Women’s World Rugby Rankings
According to World Rugby, “The Sakura 15s remain below Scotland in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings but only by one place – in a historic high of 12th.”
Photo Credit: Scotland Rugby
- NEW ZEALAND
- ENGLAND
- CANADA
- FRANCE
- AUSTRALIA
- USA
- ITALY
- WALES
- SPAIN
- IRELAND
- SCOTLAND
- JAPAN
The next ranked Asian teams are Kazakhstan (17), Hong Kong (21) and China (25).
Other interesting reads on Rugby in Asia
- Read about the new Asia Rugby EXCO and the challenges in Asia.
- Korean men clinch 7s rugby Olympic qualification.
- Read about the upcoming SEA Games this December which includes rugby sevens.
- Read about the full HSBC World Rugby Sevens 2020 schedule.
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