Wales 64 Japan 10

After a disappointing start to their Far East tour, Wales got things back on track with a huge 64-10 victory over Japan at the Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Ground in Osaka.  Wales led 52-0 at half-time.

The Welsh hero for was winger Shane Williams, who scored four tries, a Welsh record for an international match.  He scored two in each half.  Williams shares the record with Willie Llewellyn, Reggie Gibbs, Maurice Richards, Ieuan Evans and Nigel Walker.

After the match, Williams said:  "I had a lot of chances to run with the ball which was nice.  We had been working for two weeks on getting the ball to the wings and we managed that today."

Williams was not voted man of the match.  That honour fell to Geraint Lewis, the Welsh No.8.

Wales's first try was scored after only four minutes when Gareth Thomas went over from a tapped kick.  Soon after that Mark Jones collected a chip-ahead by Lewis to score, and Wales were 14-0 up.

The solo effort of the match came from Kevin Morgan whose run, chasing his won kick, took him the length of the field.

Two of the scorers were making their debuts -- Andy Lloyd and Adrian Durston.

In all Wales scored ten tries, through Gareth Thomas, Mark Jones, Kevin Morgan (2), Andy Lloyd, Shane Williams (4) and Adrian Durston.  Stephen Jones kicked seven conversions.

For Japan:  Luantangi Vaturei and Takeomi Ito scored tries. o.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Iestyn Thomas, 2 Andrew Lewis, 3 Chris Anthony, 4 Andrew Moore, 5 Craig Quinnell, 6 Gavin Thomas, 7 Andy Lloyd, 8 Geraint Lewis, 9 Gareth Cooper, 10 Stephen Jones, 11 Mark Jones, 12 Adrian Durston, 13 Gareth Thomas, 14 Shane Williams, 15 Kevin Morgan
Reserves:  Gavin Henson, Steve Jones, Jamie Robinson, Jamie Ringer

Japan:  1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masaaki Sakata (c), 3 Masahiko Toyoyama, 4 L. Vatuvei, 5 Hiroyuki Tanuma, 6 Takeomi Ito, 7 Hiroshi Sugawara, 8 Yuya Saito, 9 Wataru Murata, 10 Syotaro Oonishi, 11 Toru Kurihara, 12 Yukio Motoki, 13 N. Oto, 14 Patiliai Tuidraki, 15 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves:  Ken Iwabuchi, Kouichi Kubo, Hideki Nanba, Yuji Sonoda, Masato Yamamoto

Referee:  Dickson r.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Durston A. 1, Jones M.A. 1, Williams S.M. 4, Lloyd A. 1, Morgan K.A. 2, Thomas G. 1
Conv:  Jones S.M. 7

Japan
Tries:  Vatuvei L. 1, Ito T. 1