World Rugby U20 Championship Japan vs Wales Preview

Japan will face Wales at the same venue on June 29th 2023 where they received a tournament-opening hiding from the French which they lost 12-75 in Pool A at the World Rugby U20 Championship 2023.

Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch needs to serve up better memories and a better performance from the Baby Blossoms as they were blown away by the French precision, skill and power. Wales will be licking wounds too, but only as they let their opener get away from them, after leading the Baby All Blacks at halftime before succumbing 26-27 in an agonising defeat.

The result also means that the Japanese know the task will be no easier on Thursday as they chase a first pool win at this level and will also be chasing a first win against the Welsh, having lost to them three times in previous matches. The most recent encounter saw the teams only separated by a point in 2018 with Wales winning 18-17.

Japanese Head Coach Rob Penney said after Saturday’s loss to the French “A pretty disappointing first half. We had limited opportunities to play, but we certainly were at half-time disappointed in the way we were playing. But the positive was we turned it around in the second half performance-wise. We still leaked a couple of tries that would have been nice not to have, but overall, against a great side like France… You know, we’re not happy, but I guess it’s a progression for the next round.”

Whereas most other U20 teams are fielding semi-pro, professional and even capped XV and 7s payers, Japan has a squad comprising only University players. “They’re coming out of university systems. They are not frozen in our team. This group, in particular, were part of the three-year COVID lockdown in Japan. So they haven’t had a lot of travel, very limited interaction with western and other cultures. And this is a great opportunity for them to grow and develop” added Penney.

Japanese captain Yoshiki Omachi from Teikyo University said “We never give up and we keep pushing hard. If you look at the rough result it’s disappointing, but we still have four games to play to show our style. Obviously, the French side had good skills and physicality. Individually, they were brilliant. I’m disappointed that we were dominated today. However, we’ve got four more games. We just need to prepare more for the next ones and do well next time.”

There is no doubt the Japanese won’t throw in the towel and their two tries against the French (a try in each half through Kosho Muto and Takashi Omoto) were loudly appreciated by the crowd. “Obviously the score on the board became quite big but we also talked about doing better for the next game, thinking that we need to get our mindset up for the next game as well.  We are hurting and we need to recover well physically and mentally we need to make sure we are facing the same direction as a team for the next challenge.”

Tackling was the key area the Japanese left themselves down in,  only making 62 per cent of their tackles which was the worst in round one, and they will need to be more clinical as their average points per visit into the opposition 22 (1.7) were the worst in the opening round.

Wales however have opted for consistency in their selections and forwards Coach Mark Breeze said: “The reason, really, Mark (interim coach Mark Jones) hasn’t seen them play in a full game, except for New Zealand and we just wanted to give those boys another opportunity. Other teams have played three or four times before coming to this tournament, so they’ve gelled and connected quicker than we have. So it’s an opportunity to give players another chance – you play well, you get another opportunity. That’s the thinking behind it.”

Of the Japanese, he added “Considering the result, they are really well drilled in some aspects of the game. They’re very energetic; defensively, they come up with a lot of line speed. For us, we’re just focusing on what we do and what we can improve from the New Zealand game – but it’s also allowing the players to understand what they’re going to bring to the party on Thursday. They’re going to be wounded after that game, so we’re going to get a reaction from that. They’re going to try and get back on the horse, and it’s up to us to try and stop them doing it.”

Welsh Vice-Captain Daniel Edwards added “We have a big thing about committing to everything we do. It’s really brought us tight as a group. You could see the way we played on Saturday that we really had that belief that we could go out and score tries and roll them over. We’ve got a massive chance ahead of us on now on Thursday against Japan and we’re really excited to have a go at them.”

Morné Ferreira (South Africa) is the match referee.

Japan U20 play at nearby Paarl in their final pool game against New Zealand on July 4 2023.

Image Credit” World Rugby

Japan U20 Match Schedule – U20 World Championship 2023

Japan will face Wales at the same venue on 29th June before playing at nearby Paarl in their final pool game against New Zealand on July 4 2023.

You can also find the World Rugby U20 Championship 2023 participating teams and pools here but Japan U20 fixtures at the U20 World Championships are:

• Matchday 1: Saturday 24 June – Pool Matches (Japan 12-75 France – Pool A)
• Matchday 2: Thursday 29 June – Pool Matches (Japan vs Wales – Pool A)
• Matchday 3: Tuesday 4 July – Pool Matches (Japan vs New Zealand – Pool A)

Japan U20 Squad – vs Wales 29th June 2023

You can see more on the squad selected by the JRFU here.

1-Hwang Sena 2-Kouta Nagashima 3-Riku Tomita 4-Yuzuki Sasaki 5-Harry Willard 6-Koki Miyashita 7-Tomoki Kusuda 8-Taison Mogami 9-Yutaro Takahashi 10-Kanjiro Naramoto 11-Yoshitaka Yazaki 12- (c) Yoshiki Omachi 13-Shota Taira 14-Renji Oike 15-Kosho Muto

Replacements: 16-Takashi Omoto 17-Tomoki Yumbe 18-Kosuke Sugiura 19-Bunsuke Kurita 20-Tenta Kobayashi 21-Taishin Ohshima 22-Genki Ikuta 23-Ryohei Imano

Wales U20 Squad – vs Japan 29th June 2023

1-Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths 2-Lewis Lloyd 3-Louis Fletcher 4-Evan Hill 5-Jonny Green 6-(c) Ryan Woodman 7-Lucas De La Rua 8-Morgan Morse 9-Archie Hughes 10-Dan Edwards 11-Harri Houston 12-Bryn Bradley 13-Louie Hennessey 14-Llien Morgan 15-Cameron Winnett 

Replacements: 16-Sam Scarfe 17-Josh Morse 18-Kian Hire 19-Mackenzie Martin 20-Seb Driscoll 21-Tom Florence 22-Harri Wiilde 23-Harri Wiliams

How To Watch the World Rugby U20 Championship 2023

World Rugby has confirmed that matches will be broadcast via its online platforms in countries without a local broadcast partner.

Asian Rugby Tournament News 2023

• World Rugby U20 Championship 2023 – Complete Guide.
• Japan World Rugby U20 Championship 2023 Squad.
• Hong Kong China Select World Rugby U20 Trophy 2023 Squad.
• World Rugby U20 Championship Japan vs France Preview.