Sam BruceOct 25, 2025, 04:33 AM ET
CloseSam was brought up on long drives and the dusty fields of north-west New South Wales, where he developed his love of rugby from an early age. He joined ESPN after a five-year stint heading up Fox Sports Australia’s digital rugby coverage.
Job done in Japan. But only just.
The Wallabies snapped a three-game losing streak, falling over the line against the Brave Blossoms in terrible conditions at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
The hosts threatened what would have been another storied upset in their history, again under Eddie Jones, but Australia did just enough to deny their former coach with a 19-15 triumph.
It was always going to be a Test for which the Wallabies had very little to gain, apart from some valuable minutes for many of their extended squad, but there was far more to lose and Australia very nearly did so as Japan played all the rugby inside the final quarter and grew further emboldened every time they touched the ball.
Jake Gordon was among the Wallabies’ best as they just held on to beat Japan in Tokyo Koki Nagahama/Getty Images
When in the first half Japan had let themselves down with their handling — the Test was played amid persistent showers — suddenly their backline hummed like the bullet trains that tear up and down the Land of the Rising Sun.
In the end, however, their brave comeback fell four points short and Joe Schmidt, the Wallabies, and the rest of the Australian rugby community were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief as a result.
“I don’t think it needed to be that tense, I thought we probably scored a couple that we didn’t get the reward for… talking to Carlo [Tizzano] after the game, he said he got a couple down,” Schmidt told Stan Sport in reference to a couple of moments from the first half.
“But sometimes that’s the way it goes, you’ve just got to work your way and go again. And they kept working their way. It was wet tonight, very difficult conditions, you would have seen a very high error rate from both teams just because the ball was slippery.
“And losing both our locks in the first 20 minutes also made it difficult. I thought Jeremy Williams did very well in just keeping the lineout together and even getting a bit of pressure on theirs.”
This win won’t be put on the mantlepiece, though, with attention turning immediately to next week’s clash with England at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham. Aside from Tizzano, few other fringe Wallabies enhanced their reputations in Tokyo, while regular members of the 23 Jake Gordon, Jeremy Williams and Angus Bell were three of Australia’s best.
Tane Edmed mixed good with bad, yet again, as he seeks to secure the Wallabies’ No. 10 jersey for the immediate future, the playmaker largely controlling the game well but then letting himself down under the high ball in defence.
Eddie Jones very nearly had the last laugh with the Wallabies, only for his Brave Blossoms to fall just short of victory Koki Nagahama/Getty Images
One can only imagine how Jones was feeling as Japan threatened another stunning victory on his watch as fulltime neared, and how much he would have savoured such a result following his acrimonious second stint as Wallabies coach.
But it wasn’t to be, as Australia wore down the last 90 seconds of the clock through one-out carries and ensuring their ruck work was not only timely, but also remained on its feet.
Australia and Japan are likely to see more of each other next year, due to a halt in the Rugby Championship, and could even wind up in the same pool at Rugby World Cup 2027.
But in a Test when the goal was to expose their extended squad to greater minutes, a team with 13 changes, who then saw locks Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Josh Canham both subbed off through injury, did just enough to emerge four-point winners.
Just as they should have, even with so many frontline stars either rested or not included in the early part of the tour because of European club commitments.
The Wallabies led 14-3 at halftime having had a further try to Tizzano disallowed, though the flanker looked to have scored moments earlier from a rolling maul, only for there to be insufficient evidence for the TMO to overrule referee Ben O’Keeffe’s on-field no-try ruling. To the naked eye, however, it looked as Tizzano had at least grazed the turf with the ball.
The Western Force flanker then had another rolling maul five-point correctly scrubbed for obstruction, which will have given the Brave Blossoms some hope of a second-half comeback, though their best attacking effort of the first 40 just before the siren still failed to threaten the Australian line.
Earlier, stand-in Wallabies skipper Nick Champion de Crespigny marked his shock call-up to the job with a try from close range after 13 minutes. A sublime first-phase try from Josh Flook, with nice touches from Edmed and fullback Andrew Kellaway, then extended Australia’s advantage to 14-3 on the half-hour after an earlier Japanese penalty.
The hosts finally cracked Australia’s 22 after the break having not done so for the entirety of the first half, prop Shuhei Takeuchi’s try reducing the gap to six points after 52 minutes, only for Tizzano to finally add his name to the scoresheet via a rolling maul a short while later.
But Australian-born Ben Gunter’s try just after the hour mark set the tone for a nervy final quarter for the Wallabies, who had all but put the cue in the rack from an attacking perspective. Some smart plays from Gordon, whose exits on the box-kick were exemplary throughout, and a key late turnover from replacement Hamish Stewart allowing Australia to edge back down inside Japan’s half and make any late chance the hosts had of scrambling victory just that little bit tougher.
“We had our opportunities, mate, and we didn’t start the game well enough, Test-match rugby I think if you score the first try you give yourself a 70% chance of winning it and we were just slow out of the blocks,” Jones told Stan Sport.
“It was one of those games when you’ve got a young team playing against a big team, they watch them a little bit; we were beaten up around the breakdown and our lineout didn’t function well. But they showed plenty of character, and it was a difficult game in difficult conditions.”
AloJapan.com