A Wales men’s crowd came away with the pride of a win at home for the first time in more than two years as the hosts beat Japan, but the overriding feeling was of relief. The Welsh performance was miles off of what is expected on these shores. Sloppy attack, squandered opportunities and a 20-minute red card for Josh Adams almost handed the win to Eddie Jones’ team but that won’t be remembered in years to come, what will be is Jarrod Evans’ name.
It was his last-play-of-the-game penalty that won the game for Wales, the first in Steve Tandy’s reign as head coach. The roar that followed has to be up there with one of the loudest this stadium has heard. It was the replacement’s only kick at goal of the game and he had nerves of steel to seal the victory.
Jones had said he wanted his team to make the pressure Wales are under feel like a “burden”, and for a large portion of the game they did that with brave attack. But a few tries went begging for them too, as well as a few penalty kick misses.
There were four cards in the game – Adams’ red and three yellow cards for Japan. Jones, who joked the last-minute loss made him want to “kill someone”, added he thought all of those decisions were “farcical”. “I think we are absolutely ruining the game of rugby,” Jones said. “I don’t think any of the actions were intentional, I don’t think they deserved to be sin-binned. Any of them. I think we have to have a more sensible approach to the game.
“There is going to be contact with the head, unless it is reckless which I didn’t see any of those actions being. A penalty is fair enough … The game of rugby is about having 15 players on the field and I think World Rugby should be looking at this very closely.”
Quick GuideWales v Japan teams and scorersShow
Wales Murray; Rees-Zammit, Llewellyn, B Thomas, Adams (Tompkins 60); Edwards (Evans 79), T Williams; Smith (Carre 48), Lake (Belcher 77), Griffin (Assiratti 48), D Jenkins (F Thomas 79), Beard, Wainwright (Plumtree 48), Mann, Cracknell. Red card Adams (40). Tries Edwards, Rees-Zammit, Tompkins. Cons Edwards 3. Pen Evans.
Japan Yazaki; Ishida (Ueda 78), Riley, Lawrence, Osadal; Lee (Komura 77), Saito; Kobayashi (Furuhata 77), Sato, Tamefusa (Takeuchi 49), Uluiviti (Hockings 49), Dearns (capt), Cornelsen, Shimokawa (Paul 69), Makisi. Sin-bin: Uluiviti (25), Makisi (29), Hockings (80). Tries Ishida, Makisi. Cons Lee 2. Pens Lee 3.
Referee Matthew Carley (Eng). Attendance 61,324.
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It was a must-win for Wales as if they had lost they would have been leapfrogged by the visitors in the world rankings. That would have given Wales a stiffer task at the Rugby World Cup draw, on 3 December, as they would have dropped to 13th, meaning they would be in a group with two of the top 12 in Australia. So this game was a must-win but they had to do it without their captain, Jac Morgan, who was ruled out with a dislocated shoulder.
The home side were bolstered by Louis Rees-Zammit, who made his first start and scored his first international try since returning to rugby from trying to make his name in the NFL. The hope of Wales finally winning at home was palpable before kick-off, with the atmosphere absolutely electric. The lights went down but a red undertone remained, with a pyrotechnics show making the Principality Stadium feel like a cauldron.
Quick GuideRoundup: Ireland demolish Australia, South Africa sink Italy despite redShow
Mack Hansen claimed a first-half hat-trick to set Ireland on course for a record 46-19 win over his native Australia in Dublin. The Canberra-born Hansen, who started at full-back for the first time at Test level, celebrated his return from a foot injury by crossing three times in the opening 28 minutes to delight a capacity Aviva Stadium crowd. Second-half scores from Caelan Doris, Ryan Baird and Robbie Henshaw ensured head coach Andy Farrell again came out on top against the former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt.
Australia trailed by just five points at the break following converted tries from Len Ikitau and Fraser McReight and claimed a late consolation through Billy Pollard. But Ireland were deserved winners ahead of completing their autumn campaign at home to South Africa, the world champions, next weekend. The fly-half Sam Prendergast kicked seven points, including a drop goal, for the dominant hosts, before his replacement Jack Crowley slotted a further nine.
South Africa shrugged off a red card for the second successive match to power to a 32-14 win over an Italy side that threw away a golden opportunity to earn a rare win over the Springboks in Turin on Saturday.
Franco Mostert was shown a red card after 11 minutes but Italy failed to make their extra man count, with Paolo Garbisi guilty of missing kickable penalties.
Tries from Marco van Staden, Morné van den Berg, Grant Williams and Ethan Hooker earned South Africa a comfortable win after they withstood enormous early pressure from Italy, who scored one second-half try through Ange Capuozzo. Guardian sport and PA
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A cacophony of noise flooded the stadium as Dan Edwards darted over but thanks to the skill of Japan’s Faulua Makisi it was the visitors next putting pressure on. The No 8 was instrumental in two dangerous attacks which led to a try by Kippei Ishida. Japan were the better side in the first half but things took a turn as they were handed two yellow cards for Epineri Uluiviti and Makisi. But despite being depleted, Japan did not concede and Wales had their own card to deal with as Adams’ illegal clear-out was upgraded to a red card after a bunker review.
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The back and forth nature of the encounter was nail-biting but Evans’ penalty sealed the result and fans cheered like steam finally escaping a bubbling pot.
Tandy said of Evans’ kick: “I couldn’t watch it, I hid around the side [of the coaching box]. I could see the crowd, I could see Jarrod going to take the kick but I couldn’t see the posts. But then you just hear the eruption from the support. Fair play to Jarrod, that kick is some kick under pressure.”
Wales are back to winning ways at home and will look to bring more victories to the Principality Stadium. But with two huge challenges coming against New Zealand and South Africa, and their only wins in their last 21 Tests coming against Japan, it is likely to be 2026 before fans see Wales win again.
AloJapan.com