Test Match No. 167: The 5th Pacific Rim Championship, game 5

日本語 Photo
15 July 2000 in Ontario
●Japan 18-62 Canada○
Hirao and his men lost all games
 
Data:
15/07/2000, the 5th EPSON CUP Pacific Rim Championship
Japan 18 Canada 62
Fletcher's Field, Markham, Ontario
Half-time: 6-20
Referee: Alan William Klemp (U.S.A.)
Touch Judges: 1st Steve Scott (Canada), 2nd Pierre Drolet (Canada), 3rd John Smith (Canada)
Crowd: 3,500
 
JAPAN: 15 Toru Kurihara, 14 Daisuke Ohata, 13 Osami Yatsuhashi (22 Akira Yoshida 68), 12 Hideki Nanba, 11 Terunori Masuho (capt), 10 Shotaro Onishi (21 Keiji Hirose 61), 9 Katsuji Ohara (20 Mamoru Ito 69), 8 Masanao Washiya, 7 Masahiro Kurokawa (19 Takeshi Nozawa 69), 6 Jun Komura, 5 Naoya 'Katsuo' Okubo, 4 Kazuya Koizumi (18 Hiroyuki Tanuma 68), 3 Masahiko Toyoyama, 2 Masao Amino (16 Shin Hasegawa 25), 1 Yasuhiko Iwama (17 Takahiro Hirata 18).
Tries: Ohata, Yoshida; Conversion: Kurihara; Penalty Goals: Kurihara (2).
 
CANADA: 15 Winston Stanley, 14 Sean Fauth, 13 Nik Witkowski, 12 Kyle Nichols, 11 Jason Verstraten (22 Mark Irvine 69), 10 Jared Barker, 9 Morgan Williams, 8 Ryan Banks (20 Phil Murphy 69), 7 Greg Dixon, 6 John Hutchinson, 5 John Tait, 4 Al Charron (capt) (19 Ed Kanaggs 77), 3 Jon Thiel, 2 Harry Towes, 1 Rod Snow.
Reserves: 16 Kevin Tkachuk, 17 Dale Burleigh, 18 Duane Major, 21 Nick Milau.
Tries: Nichols (4), Stanley, Charron, Verstrten, Banks; Conversions: Barker (8); Penalty Goals: Barker (2).
 
Scoring sequence (Japan's score shown first): 3min-pen Canada, Barker-0-3, 10min-try Canada, Nichols, conv. Barker-0-10, 12min-pen Japan, Kurihara-3-10, 14min-try Canada, Stanley, conv. Barker-3-17, 30min-pen Canada, Barker-3-20, 38min-pen Japan, Kurihara-6-20, 40min-pen Japan, Kurihara (mssed), Half-time, 43min-pen Canada, Barker (missed), 44min-try Canada, Nichols, conv. Barker-6-27, 54min-try Japan, Ohata, conv. Kurihara (missed)-11-27, 57min-try Canada, Charron, conv. Barker-11-34, 60min-try Canada, Nichols, conv. Barker-11-41, 65min-try Canada, Verstrten, conv. Barker-11-48, 71min-try Canada, Nichols, conv. Barker-11-55, 75min-try Canada, Banks, conv. Barker-11-62, 78min-try Japan, Yoshida, conv. Kurihara-18-62.
 


In the 5th Pacific Rim Championship, last year's champion Japan lost all five games and came last. Samoa and Fiji both finished with four wins and one loss, but Samoa won on points and became this year's champion. Japan had a bad second half in their final match against Canada, too. They are now in a tight corner with the tour to France and Ireland in January. It was an ugly loss, in which they conceded eight tries and 62 points. They managed not to break the record of the most points conceded in the Pacific Rim Championship that they established with Samoa one month ago, but they topped the records in matches against Canada (the former records were: 51 points conceded in 1996, and score difference of 24 points in 1997). Before this match, coach Hirao called it “the bottom line of the first half of this year”, but it ended in a humiliating result. Japan was ill-organised from the beginning. Their systematic play did not work, and they were constantly attacked by Canada.