Japan’s narrow defeat by Australia showed they can compete with the best teams in the world, coach Eddie Jones said after his side fell to a 19-15 loss yesterday.
Australia coach Joe Schmidt led the Wallabies for the first time against Eddie Jones, his predecessor and now Japan coach. During Jones’ second tenure as Australia coach, the Wallabies lost seven of nine tests and were eliminated in group play at the 2023 World Cup.
“What I’m super pleased about is that now we [Japan] are a team that stays in the fight,” Jones told reporters. “We kept going, we could have won the game in the end, but we weren’t quite good enough.”
Photo: EPA
Schmidt said of Japan’s performance: “There was nothing surprising about how competitive they were, how combative they were.”
Australia, who lost two locks to injury early on — Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and his replacement Josh Canham — would look to bring in replacements before facing England at Twickenham next weekend.
“With England’s strong pack, it means we may be light in the second row,” Schmidt said. “We might need to get some reserves from Australia.”
Japan would also travel to London to take on South Africa at Wembley Stadium next week.
“We’re going there thinking we’re going to win,” Jones said.
The Brave Blossoms pulled off a legendary upset at the 2015 World Cup in England, beating the Springboks with a last-gasp try.
“South Africa are like everyone, if you put pressure on and get in their face, they make mistakes,” Jones said. “Imagine beating South Africa at Wembley, that would be iconic.”
Schmidt made 13 changes to the team that played New Zealand in Perth in the Wallabies’ previous test match. Combinations at times looked brittle and underdeveloped.
Japan’s defense was superb, using quick line-speed to shut down the inside channels and prevent Australia from moving the ball wide.
At about the 19th minute, Japan defended its goal line against 27 phases of Australian attack while conceding several penalties and the first of two yellow cards. Japan’s backline became more dangerous in the second half after critical handling errors by scrum-half Shinobu Fujiwara before halftime.
De Crespigny’s opening try came after Fujiwara lost the ball, and Australia quickly recovered possession. A kick behind the defensive line put Japan under pressure near its goal line for the first time and resulted in a penalty to Australia.
The Wallabies took a quick tap, and after several pick-and-go attempts, de Crespigny crashed over. Tane Edmed converted.
Australia battered the Japan line first through 17 phases in the middle of the first half, then, after a penalty, for 10 more phases before Japan’s Michael Leitch won a turnover. Japan center Charlie Lawrence was shown a yellow card after repeated team offending.
Japan flyhalf Seungsin Lee kicked a penalty to make the score 7-3, and two minutes late,r Australia finally managed to crack open the defense. From a scrum, Edmed looped Hunter Paisami at first receiver and linked with Andrew Kellaway, who sent Flook on a 30-meter dash to the line.
Takeuchi scored after a neat interchange at the back of Japan’s lineout in the 53rd minute. Fujiwara passed to Leitch, then held the ball up to Takeuchi who pierced the defense.
Tizzano’s try from a lineout drive gave Australia a 19-8 lead before Gunter’s try, converted by Seungsin Lee cut the lead to four points and set up a tense last 10 minutes.
Prop Aidan Ross took the field in the 58th minute to become the fifth player to play test rugby for both Australia and New Zealand after playing for the All Blacks in 2021.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
RSS