New Zealand yesterday launched their end-of-year tour with a 38-31 victory over Japan, but the makeshift All Blacks side were given a mighty scare in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 at Tokyo’s Japan National Stadium.
The visitors played the last 14 minutes a man down after lock Brodie Retallick was sent off for a dangerous clear-out and just held on for victory despite a late try from outstanding Brave Blossoms flanker Kazuki Himeno.
A three-try blitz had put New Zealand 21-3 ahead after 32 minutes, but Japan, who have never beaten the All Blacks, struck back with two of their own to cut the deficit to four points at halftime.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Hulking winger Caleb Clarke bulldozed his way through the Japan defense soon after the break to restore New Zealand’s lead, but Japan lock Warner Dearns slashed it back by charging down a Finlay Christie box-kick and regathering to score.
All Blacks No. 8 Hoskins Sotutu barged his way across the line on the hour mark and that proved enough of a cushion even after Retallick was shown a red card in his 99th Test for his clear-out on Himeno.
“It’s our first game after a bit of a break and we were a bit rusty, but they played really well,” All Blacks coach Ian Foster said. “We got put under a lot of pressure, but I really liked the way we played. Japan came back very well before halftime and really turned the game into a tight contest.”
Japan, who tackled everything that moved and attacked with every scrap of possession they earned, might take consolation from by far the lowest margin of defeat in their five official Tests against the three-time world champions.
“They kept going right to the end and they really thought they had a chance to win the game,” Japan coach Jamie Joseph said.
“I’m very proud of our players. They showed the right intent, right from the start until the end. It was exactly what we’re trying to build as a rugby team,” he said.
Dylan Riley had a hand in both of Japan’s first-half tries, his chip resulting in flyhalf Takuya Yamasawa’s score and an outrageous offload out of the tackle sending scrumhalf Yutaka Nagare in on the stroke of halftime.
Samisoni Taukei’aho, a late replacement for the injured Dane Coles at hooker, had a similar impact for the All Blacks with a line-break to send Retallick in for the opening try and a long line-out throw that set up winger Sevu Reece’s score.
New Zealand’s second try in the 26th minute had an element of luck to it with center Braydon Ennor crossing after what looked like a clear forward pass from Richie Mo’unga to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in the lead-up.
Additional reporting by AFP
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS