Japan’s international 15s rugby schedule 2020

Japan’s Brave Blossom 15s national men’s rugby schedule 2020 have a congested 2020 calendar ahead. On the back of their most successful Rugby World Cup in 2019 at home, the team have been ‘rewarded” with a number of tier 1 matches.

Rugby New Japan, the FB page from Rich Freeman, who generally has a good pulse on all things Japanese rugby, said last week that the Japanese may also be playing the New Zealand All Blacks this year.

Here we look at the Japan’s international 15s rugby schedule 2020.

Japan’s international 15s rugby schedule 2020

The Brave Blossoms will be playing a number of high-profile international test matches in 2020 following their success at the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

Japan is ranked 8th in the World Rugby rankings at the time of publishing.

• June 27 2020: Japan v Wales, Venue and KO time TBC
• 4 July 2020: Japan v England, Oita Stadium, Ōita, Japan
• 11 July 2020: Japan v England Kobe Misaki Stadium, Kobe, Japan
• 18 July 2020: Japan v France, Venue TBC but likely cancelled
• 31st October 2020: Japan vs New Zealand, TBC
• 14 November 2020: Scotland v Japan, Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
• 21 November 2020: Ireland v Japan, Aviva Stadium, Dublin
• 5 December 2020: Barbarians v Japan, Twickenham Stadium, London

Impact on RWC 2023

These test matches come at a crucial time as the Rugby World Cup 2023 draw will be held in November 2020, said World Rugby earlier this year. The draw will be based on the world rankings after the weekend of the 21-22 November, by which time Japan will have played Wales once, England twice, NZ once at home and Scotland and Ireland away.

The timing of the World Rugby draw for the World Cups has been criticised previously and their announcement in January 2020 to hold the draw almost three years before the tournament begins in France, again drew strong criticism.

The banding of the team for the RWC has a strong impact on the group makeup at the World Cup and of course the chances of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy currently held by South Africa.

An example from World Rugby of the banding based on rankings as of January 29, 2020, would be:

• Band 1: South Africa, New Zealand, England, Wales
• Band 2: Ireland, Australia, France, Japan
• Band 3: Scotland, Argentina, Fiji, Italy

The location and date for the pool draw are still to be announced but if Japan doesn’t have positive results, they will find themselves in a tough banding for 2023 in France.

World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup 2020

The Japanese national men’s team usually also participates in the Pacific Nations Cup, which they won in 2019. No details have been confirmed for the 2020 edition of the PNC but other teams involved last year were Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, USA, Canada.

Other rugby news

• Read our guide on the best international rugby tournaments in 2020.
• The RWC 2021 venues and dates confirmed.
• Global Rapid Rugby 2020 confirms its teams.
• Rhino has signed a deal with Asia Rugby until 2024.
• The RWC 2021 Women’s Asia Qualifiers include Japan, HK and Kazakhstan.