Test Match No. 311: Pacific Nations Cup, game 1

日本語 Photo Journal
18 July 2015; G: San Jose, the United States; R: Luke Pearce (ENG)
○Japan 20-6 Canada●
 
Data:
18/7/2015, 10th Pacific Nations Cup 1st Match
Japan 20 Canada 6
Avaya Stadium, San
Half-time 11 - 3
Refree: Luke Pearce (England)
Crowd: 8,900
 
JAPAN: 15 Ayumu Goromaru (capt), 14 Yoshikazu Fujita (23 Tim Bennetts 64), 13 Kotaro Matsushima, 12 Yu Tamura (33,43), 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Harumichi Tatekawa (22 Toshiaki Hirose 10), 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Hayden Hopgood, 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Justin Ives, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Hitoshi Ono (19 Kazuhiko Usami 61), 3 Hiroshi Yamashita (18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga 51), 2 Shota Horie (17 Takeshi Kizu 70), 1 Hisateru Hirashima (16 Keita Inagaki 51).
Reserves: 20 Tsuyoshi Murata, 21 Keisuke Uchida.
Coach: Eddie Jones.
Tries: Fujita; Penalty Goals: Goromaru (5).
Yellow Cards: Tamura (33, sin-bin).
 
CANADA: 15 Matt Evans, 14 Jeff Hassier, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Connor Braid, 11 D.T.H.van der Merwe (23 Phil Mackenzie 54), 10 Liam Underwood (22 Nathan Hirayama 75), 9 Gordon McRorie (21 Phil Mack 68), 8 Tyler Ardron(capt), 7 Richard Thorpe, 6 Thyssen de Goede (20 Callum Morrison 61), 5 Jon Phelan (19 Tyler Hotson 64), 4 Brett Beukeboom, 3 Doug Wooldridge (18 Andrew Tiedemann 46), 2 Ray Barkwill (24,35)(16 Aaron Carpenter 24,35,56), 1 Hubert Buydens (17 Djustice Sears=Duru 68).
Reserves:
Coach: Kieran Crowley.
Penalty Goals: McRorie (2).
 
Scoring sequence (Japan's score shown first): 5min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-3-0, 13min-try Japan, Yoshikazu Fujita; conv. Ayumu Goromaru (missed)-8-0, 17min-pen Canada, Gordon McRorie-8-3, 45min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-11-3, 54min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-14-3, 61min-pen Canada, Gordon McRorie-14-6, 64min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-17-6, 66min-pen Japan, Ayumu Goromaru-20-6.
 


In the first half, Japan overwhelmed the opponent completely with set plays, except when conceding a penalty in a scrum once. At the beginning, as you could see from the scenes where both wings approached Canada's goal, Canada's defense was overwhelmed by Japan's attacks which moved the ball at a good tempo.
The player who did the decisive work, which led to a try, was centre Matsushima. He received the ball with a chance number 8 Hayden Hopgood created by breaking through the opposing defense vertically from a lineout, then cut in a gap which appeared between Canada's centre players, who were not able to catch up with Japan's quick movements to achieve a big gain. The ball was passed to wing Yoshikazu Fujita in a timely fashion, which pleased the Japanophile audience. In addition to this try, captain and full-back Goromaru scored two penalty goals to finish the first half with a score of 11-3. In the 10th minute of the first half, stand-off Harumichi Tatekawa got his face hit hard and left the match, and in the 33rd minute, centre Yu Tamura was sent to the sin-bin for ten minutes due to a dangerous tackle, but through the way this hard time period was dealt with, the growth of the team were demonstrated.
Japan's points in the second half were just 9 points with three penalty goals by captain and full-back Goromaru. Yet, their sets were stable, and their concentration was not lost in their defense also, such as the way in which each player moved forward to stop Canada's attacks even while they were stuck in front of their own goal just before the match ended.