Japan put 40 on Russia

Japan racked up 27 unanswered points in the second half to defeat Russia 40-13 in Wales on Friday.

Japan scored one try in the first half and four in the second as they picked up the first win of their European tour.

Ayumu Goromaru opened the scoring with a penalty in the third minute after Japan had kept the ball alive for more than a dozen phases from the kick-off.

But despite dominating possession and territory for the next 10 minutes it was Russia who scored next when a Japan handling error allowed Vladimir Ostroushko to use his pace to follow up a kick ahead and touch down.  Ramil Gayshin banged over the conversion as Russia led 7-3 completely against the run of play.

Japan hit back though when a good break by Goromaru in the 15th minute was finished off by Hendrik Tui after the Japan forwards pushed the Russian pack back 15 metres.  Goromaru's conversion made it 10-7.

A brace of penalties from Gayshin saw Russia regain the lead before Goromaru levelled things up with a second penalty in the 28th minute, as the teams went into the break all level at 13-13.

Japan got off to the best possible start to the second half when Michael Broadhurst crossed two minutes after the break.  Goromaru added the conversion and then a penalty before Male Sa'u scored the try of the game in the 50th minute.

The Japan centre used his pace and power to go over from 35 metres out, before following it up with a second five-pointer seven minutes late.  Toshiaki Hirose then rounded off the scoring in the 67th minute following a good cross kick from Kosei Ono.

Japan fly to Madrid on Sunday and wrap up their European tour with a test against Spain on Nov. 23

The scorers:

For Japan:
Tries:  Broadhurst, Sau 2, Hirose
Cons:  Goromaru 4
Pens:  Goromaru 4

For Russia:
Try:  Ostroushko
Con:  Gaysin
Pen:  Gaysin
Yellow Card:  Artemyev

Japan:  15 Ayumu Goromaru, 14 Toshiaki Hirose (c), 13 Male Sau, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Yoshikazu Fujita, 10 Kosei Ono, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani, 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Hitoshi Ono , 4 Luke Thompson, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Masataka Mikami.
Replacements:  16 Hiroki Yuharai, 17 Hisateru Hirashima, 18 Hiroshi Yamashita, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20 Justin Ives, 21 Atsushi Hiwasa, 22 Seiichi Shimomura, 23 Akihito Yamada .

Russia:  15 Ramil Gaysin, 14 Vasily Artemyev, 13 Dmitry Gerasimov, 12 Alexey Makovetskiy, 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Sergey Sugrobov, 9 Anton Ryabov, 8 Victor Gresev, 7 Pavel Butenko, 6 Alexander Khudyakov, 5 Andrey Garbuzov, 4 Alexander Voytov (capt), 3 Evgeny Pronenko, 2 Valery Tsnobiladze, 1 Grigory Tsnobiladze.
Replacements:  16 Vladislav Korshunov, 17 Sergey Sekisov, 18 Innokentiy Zykov, 19 Denis Antonov, 20 Artem Fatakhov, 21 Alexey Shcherban, 22 Igor Galinovskiy, 23 Denis Simplikevich.

Referee:  JP Doyle (England)