TOKYO – Australia escaped with a 19-15 win over Japan in a one-off rugby test Saturday in Tokyo, thwarting Brave Blossoms head coach Eddie Jones’ bid for a landmark victory against his former side.
Joe Schmidt’s touring team ran in three tries to two at a rain-soaked National Stadium, where the slippery conditions led to handling errors by both sides.
Looking for their first victory in seven attempts against Australia, world No. 13 Japan did themselves no favors with two first-half yellow cards and were fortunate to only trail 14-3 at the break.
The youthful Brave Blossoms had the upper hand for much of the second half, however, with tries from Shuhei Takeuchi and Ben Gunter taking them to the brink of an upset against seventh-ranked Australia.
“For the first 20 minutes we were like spectators in the game. We weren’t our usual aggressive selves and that allowed Australia to get the lead, and that in the end was enough to get the win,” said the Australian-born Jones, who downplayed the significance of facing his home country.
“You always have feelings about your own country, but test matches are about one country against another, so we’re really disappointed about the result today.”
First-time Wallaby captain Nick Champion de Crespigny gave his team the lead in the 13th minute, diving across after a Japanese penalty handed Australia the ball near the opposing try line.
Japan’s dogged defense prevented Australia dotting down for a second following Charlie Lawrence’s yellow, and the hosts were able to string together some threatening passages leading to Lee Seung Sin putting them on the board with his 29th-minute penalty.
The Wallabies made it 14-3 after Josh Flook finished a slick backline move in the 30th minute but were denied two further first-half tries by the television match official — the first for Carlo Tizzano being held up over the line and the second for obstruction.
Japan looked dangerous from the start of the second half and made their breakthrough in the 55th minute, when flyhalf Shinobu Fujiwara sent Takeuchi through a gap after a penalty put them in sight of the tryline. Lee missed the conversion leaving Japan down 14-8.
The Wallabies capitalized on a penalty to go up 19-8 on Tizzano’s unconverted effort, but their knock-on inside the 22 led to Gunter going over and Lee converting in the 62nd minute for a four-point margin that the visitors desperately clung onto until the end.
Japan now head to Europe for a Nov. 1 meeting with South Africa at London’s Wembley Stadium before further tests against Ireland, Wales and Georgia.
“We want to play like we played in the second half for 80 minutes against the best teams in the world, and give ourselves the chance of winning the games,” Jones said. “I want to start every game on tour the way we finished today.”
AloJapan.com