Japan beat Spain in Tokyo

Japan beat Spain 44-29 at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.

Surprisingly for a country bidding for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the only information this website could find was ion the official website of the Spanish Rugby Federation.  There was nothing available to us on the Japanese Rugby Union's website nor that of the Japan Times whose sport coverage includes skating, sumo wrestling, F1 and soccer but no report on the last rugby Test prior to the announcement of the bid.

The report we have comes from Spain, which professed it self satisfied with its team's performances and noted that it had opportunities to win the match.

The Spanish side played a great game, specially in first half in which it was ahead on the scoreboard for a long period of time.  At one stage Spain led 18-14 after a try by scrumhalf Pablo Feijóo, converted by Esteban Roqué, and a dropped goal by fullback César Sempere.

Japan started strongly and were on the board in the opening minutes when fullback Goshi Tachikawa scored a try converted by Japan's legendary goalkicker, Keiji Hirose, the only Japanese survivor of the first encounter between the two countries.

Spain attacked after that and a try by Jorge Prieto made it 7-5 till Japan scored again.  This time flank Takashi Kikutani, went over and it was 14-5.

Back came the Spanish with the two drops by Sempere on either side of Feijóo's try.  Spain were playing well with the ball in hand.  But a try for Japan by lock Takashi Akatsuka but the home side e ahead at the break.

A penalty goal by Roqué brought the sides level early in the second half but then Hirose's boot started singing with two penalties and a drop to a try by David Mota who had replaced Prieto.  That made it 30-26.  But Japan then got two more tries, the second well into injury time.

It was only the second rugby Test between the two.  In 1999 Japan also won in Tokyo.

Scorers:

For Japan:
Tries:  Tachikawa, Kikutani, Akatsuka, Oto, Onozawa
Cons:  Hirose 5
Drop:  Hirose
Pens:  Hirose 2

For Spain:
Tries:  Prieto, Feijóo, Mota
Con:  Roqué
Drops:  Sempere 2
Pens:  Roqué 2

Teams:

Japan:  15 Goshi Tachikawa, 14 Nataniera Oto, 13 Junpei Enomoto, 12 Shotaro Onishi, 11 Hirotoki Onozawa, 10 Keiji Hirose, 9 Wataru Ikeda (captain), 8 Hajime Kiso, 7 Takashi Kikutani, 6 Tomoaki Nakai, 5 Takashi Akatsuka, 4 Toshizumi Kitagawa, 3 Ryo Yamamura, 2 Yuji Matsubara, 1 Yuichi Hisatomi.
Replacements:  16 Taskashi Yamaoka, 17 Tomokazu Soma, 18 Tsuyoshi Sato, 19 Takanori Kumagae, 20 Mamoru Ito, 21 Ryota Asano, 22 Takashi Miyake.

Spain:  15 César Sempere, 14 Jorge Prieto,13 Ferrán Velazco (captain),12 Jaime Nava,11 Ignacio Martín,10 Esteban Roqué,9 Pablo Feijóo, 8 Iván Criado, 7 Juan González, 6 Rafael Camacho, 5 César Bernasconi, 4 Andrew Ebbett, 3 Javier Salazar, 2 Diego Zarzosa, 1 Ion Insausti.
Replacements:  16 Mathieu Cidre,17 César Caballero,18 Alejandro Ortega,19 Álvaro Lázaro, 20 Facundo Lavino, 21 Alvar Enciso, 22 David Mota

Referee:  Andrew Cole (Australia)
Touch judges:  Shinji Aida, Taizo Hirabayashi (both Japan)