Test Match No. 153: The 4th Pacific Rim Championship, game 1

日本語 Photo Journal
1 May 1999 at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium
○Japan 23-21 Canada●
Won a tight game against Canada
 
Data:
01/05/99, the 4th Pacific Rim Championship
Japan 23 Canada 21
Prince Chichibu Memorial Ground,
Tokyo Half-time: 13-10
Referee: Masunu Talapusi (Samoa)
Touch Judges: 1st Nobuaki Tanaka (Japan), 2nd Shinsuke Shimoi (Japan), 3rd Katsuyoshi Mori (Japan)
Crowd: 13,000
 
JAPAN: 15 Tsutomu Matsuda (16 Goshi Tachikawa 14), 14 Daisuke Ohata, 13 Andrew McCormick (capt), 12 Yukio Motoki, 11 Terunori Masuho (17 Kensuke Iwabuchi 44), 10 Keiji Hirose, 9 Graeme Bachop, 8 Jamie Joseph, 7 Greg Smith, 6 Yasunori Watanabe (19 Takeomi Ito temp 64-66), 5 Hiroyuki Tanuma, 4 Robert Gordon (20 Yoshihiko Sakuraba 69), 3 Kenji Kasai (21 Naoto Nakamura 50), 2 Shin Hasegawa, 1 Toshikazu Nakamichi (22 Masaaki Sakata 64).
Reserve: 18 Masami Horikoshi.
Tries: McCormick, Joseph; Conversions: Hirose (2); Penalty Goals: Horose (3).
 
CANADA: 15 Joe Pagano, 14 Jeremy Cordle, 13 Winston Stanley, 12 Kyle Nichols, 11 Courtney Smith, 10 Bob Ross, 9 John Graf (capt), 8 Ryan Banks (19 Rob Robson 61), 7 Dan Baugh, 6 John Hutchinson, 5 Tony Healy (20 Chris Whittaker 53), 4 John Tait, 3 John Thiel (22 Richard Bice 67), 2 Pat Dunkley, 1 Rod Snow.
Reserves: 16 Julain Loveday, 17 Scott Bryan, 18 Mark Cardinal, 21 Brian McCarthy.
Tries: Smith, Baugh; Conversion: Ross; Penalty Goals: Ross (3).
 
Scoring sequence (Japan's score shown first): 4min-pen Japan, Hirose-3-0, 7min-pen Canada, Ross (missed), 15min-try Japan, McCormick; conv. Hirose-10-0, 24min-pen Canada, Ross-10-3, 29min-try Canada, Smith; conv. Ross-10-10, 40min-pen Japan, Hirose-13-10, Half-time, 43min-drop goal Japan, Hirose (missed), 52min-pen Canada, Ross-13-13, 56min-pen Canada, Ross-13-16, 58min-pen Japan, Hirose-16-16, 60min-drop goal Canada, Ross (missed), 68min-try Japan, Joseph; conv. Hirose-23-16, 78min-try Canada, Baugh; conv. Ross (missed)-23-21.
 


The 4th Pacific Rim Championship changed its format to a round-robin among the six countries: the United States, Canada, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and Japan. In this year of the World Cup, coach Hirao added two former All Blacks to the team: Jamie Joseph as number 8, the heart of the team, and Graeme Bachop as scrum-half.
These two responded to the coach's expectation by doing a great all-round job and leading Japan to win this game. The two tries by Japan were staged by these two players: In the 15th minute of the first half, Bachop ran to the left from a ruck, attracted the opponent's defence, while McCormick scored the first try on the scoreboard. In the 28th minute of the second half, Joseph burst through the side from the scrum and scored a go-ahead try. Other major contributors to this win were Ohata, who tackled the opponent at the in-goal area to prevent him from scoring a try in the 36th minute of the second half, as well as Hirose, an accurate kicker.