Test Match No. 295: Japan tour Europe, game 2

日本語 Photo Journal
15 November 2013; G: Colwyn Bay (WAL); R: Luke Pearce (ENG)
○Japan 40-13 Russia●
 
Data:
15/11/2013, European tour 2013 1st Match
Japan 40 Russia 13
Colwyn Bay Stadium,Wales
Half-time 13- 13
Refree: Luke Pearce (England)
Crowd: 1,250
 
JAPAN: 15 Ayumu Goromaru, 14 Toshiaki Hikose (capt), 13 Male Sau, 12 Yu Tamura (22 Seiichi Shimomura 67), 11 Yoshikazu Fujita (23 Akihito Yamada 68), 10 Kosei Ono, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka (21 Atsushi Hiwasa 63), 8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani (20 Justin Ives 59), 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Hitoshi Ono (19 Shinya Makabe 50), 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama (18 Hiroshi Yamashita 60), 2 Shota Horie (16 Hiroki Yuhara 75), 1 Masataka Mikami (17 Hisaaki Hirashima 67).
Reserves:
Coach: Eddie Jones.
Tries: Hendrik Tui, Michael Broadhurst, Male Sau (2), Toshiaki Hikose; Conversions: Ayumu Goromaru (3); Penalty Goals: Goromaru (3).
 
RUSSIA: 15 Ramil Gaysin (23 Denis Simplikevich 65), 14 Vasily Artemyev (46, 56), 13 Dmitry Gerasimov (22 Igor Galinovskiy 62), 12 Alexey Makovetskiy (21 Alexey Shcherban 77), 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Sergey Sugrobov, 9 Anton Ryabov, 8 Victor Gresev, 7 Pavel Butenko, 6 Alexander Khudyakov, 5 Andrey Garbuzov (20 Artem Fatakhov 58), 4 Alexander Voytov (capt) (19 Denis Antonov 60), 3 Evgeny Pronenko (18 Innokentiy Zykov 45), 2 Valeriy Tsnobiladze (16 Vladislav Korshunov 46), 1 Grigory Tsnobiladze.
Reserves: 17 Sergey Sekisov.
Tries: Vladimir Ostroushko; Conversions: Ramil Gaysin; Penalty Goal: Ramil Gaysin (2).
Yellow Card: Vasily Artemyev (46, sin-bin).
 
Scoring sequence (Japan's score shown first): 3min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-3-0, 11min-try Russia, Vladimir Ostroushko; conv. Ramil Gaysin-3-7, 14min-try Japan, Hendrik Tui; conv. Ayumu Goromaru-10-7, 19min-pen Russia, Ramil Gaysin-10-10, 24min-pen Russia, Ramil Gaysin-10-13, 28min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-13-13, 42min-try Japan, Michael Broadhurst; conv. Ayumu Goromaru-20-13, 47min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-23-13, 51min-try Japan, Male Sau; conv. Ayumu Goromaru (missed)-28-13, 57min-try Japan, Male Sau; conv. Ayumu Goromaru-35-13, 67min-try Japan, Toshiaki Hikose; conv. Ayumu Goromaru (missed)-40-13.
 


The opponent was Russia who Japan had won against three years ago with a big point gap of 75-3, and the score was 13-13 when the first half ended. Japan made seven handling errors just within the first half. Even while attacking overwhelmingly, Japan scored only one try from a maul. Since Japan were able to win in contact situations, they tended to use individual activities or select shallow options and made many avoidable mistakes. As the key persons who were in charge said, they could have reached Russia's goal if they had continued attacking for just a few more phases, but their attack ended with a play which looked just thoughtless.
In the locker room during the half time break after the first half ended, the spot coach Steve Borthwick, who was a former England national team lock, scolded the players in a strict tone. The biggest point was the fact that the players did not respect Russia. Since they didn't take Russia's power seriously, they attempted to score a try easily and self-destructed. As lock Hitoshi Ono, the oldest player among the members, said “We were awoken by his words,” and their careless plays decreased drastically in the second half. At the end, captain and wing Hirose scored a try to make the number of tries in the second half four in all. Centre Male Sau, who made mistakes consecutively in the first half, also ran through Russia's goal twice in the second half. Eventually, Japan widened the score gap to 40-13 and got their first win in the tour.