Japan 7 South Africa 61
A dark, wet evening in Brent is a long way from the sun and sea of Brighton. And, boy, there were not many echoes here of rugby’s greatest upset – quite possibly sport’s – bar the names of the teams and the inimitable fellow sitting in Japan’s coaching box, Eddie Jones. South Africa were 43-point favourites in 2015 and a mere 37 this time, but the reality of lopsided rugby was all too formidably asserted.
Instead it was Wembley that echoed, the lower tier around two-thirds full. South Africa, nine of whose squad play club rugby in Japan, wanted to organise this run-out to bring together their squad from around the world before the big one next weekend against France. As an exercise it worked well enough, the Springboks utterly dominant from start to finish, notching up nine tries in the process.
South Africa are indisputably the best team in the world at the moment while Japan are some way shy of where they were 10 years ago. Michael Leitch, the talisman of 2015, is still there in the backrow, aged 37. At fullback, Japan fielded Yoshitaka Yazaki, an amateur, who went over for Japan’s solitary try, 10 minutes or so after the break, a tap and dart from a penalty during a rare phase of Japanese pressure. Alas, they were 33-0 down at that point.
But that was it for romance. South Africa opened with a standard lineout and drive for their first try after three minutes, finished by their captain, Siya Kolisi. Then up stepped the latest star of South African rugby.
Let us not reach for any hyperboles just yet. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has been mentioned in the same breath as Dan Carter more than a few times, but we will settle for saying he is really quite good. He took the record for points in a Test match earlier in the year, with 37 against as formidable an opponent as Argentina, so was always likely to look comfortable against Japan.
South Africa centre Jesse Kriel dives over the line to score a try during the Autumn Nations Series match against Japan at Wembley Stadium. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images
He weighed in with two tries, both individualist and brilliant, not dissimilar to You Know Who, who was the same age, 23, when he turned in a performance for the ages against the Lions in 2005. Certainly, this bears no comparison to that masterclass, but, having converted Kolisi’s try, he followed up his own up-and-under to score South Africa’s second 10 minutes later, before showing off his running skills for another five minutes after that.
Running on an arc, he dummied inside Dylan Riley and beat the grasping Jack Cornelsen to canter to the posts in imperious style. All right, this was a friendly against overpowered opposition, but he will be around for some time. And it is not as if they don’t already have Handré Pollard, sitting in the stands for this. The Springboks’ depth is the envy of the world.
The new term these days is “hybrid player”, and these two coaches are just the type to peddle its use. Japan had Tiennan Costley on their bench, a backrow forward who came on as a wing. But South Africa boast the prototype in Kwagga Smith. Now they add to their armoury André Esterhuizen, until recently Quins’ beloved giant in the centre. He came on to play in the backrow – seems only natural – and thought he had one try from a lineout, which was chalked off, before powering over round the fringes for another, which stood.
That was South Africa’s seventh. Either side of it, Kurt-Lee Arendse, one of who knows how many electric runners the Springboks have at their disposal, scored a brace. He picked up when Yazaki spilled an up-and-under and coasted home, before a Cheslin Kolbe – there’s another one – break put him over for his second.
Both sides enjoyed a lap of the pitch afterwards. But the match itself will not live on like its more famous iteration 10 years ago.
SOUTH AFRICA: C Kolbe; E Hooker, J Kriel, D De Allende, K Arendse; S Feinberg-Mngomezulu, C Reinach; O Nche, M Marx, Z Porthen; RG Snyman, L De Jager; S Kolisi (capt), F Mostert, J Wiese.
Replacements: G Steenekamp for Nche (19 mins); J Grobbelaar for Marx, W Louw for Porthen, A Esterhuizen for Kolisi, K Smith for Wiese (all 45); M Libbok for Feinberg-Mngomezulu, G Williams for Reinach (both 54); R Nortje for De Jager (69), Reinach for Hooker (71).
JAPAN: Y Yazaki; K Ishida, D Riley, C Lawrence, T Osada; S Lee, S Fujiwara; K Kobayashi, K Sato, T Takeuchi; J Cornelsen, W Dearns (capt); B Gunter, K Shimokawa, M Leitch.
Replacements: F Makisi for Leitch (48 mins); T Costley for Lawrence (54); T Paul for Shimokawa (62); R Iwaihara for Kobayashi, K Tamefusa for Takeuchi (both 65); K Fukuda for Fujiwara, S Hirao for Sato (both 66); S Greene for Lee (69).
Yellow cards: Takeuchi (36 mins); Gunter (46).
Referee: E Cross (Ireland).
Attendance: 23,243
AloJapan.com