Japan make one change for France

Editor

Japan head coach Jamie Joseph has made just one alteration to his starting line-up to face France in their end-of-year Test in Nanterre on Saturday.

Joseph has kept faith with most of his squad which claimed a 39-6 victory over Tonga in Toulouse last weekend with the only change made at scrum-half where Yutaka Nagare takes over from veteran scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka, who is relegated to the replacements bench.

There is one other change to the matchday squad with Yoshitaka Tokunaga coming on to the replacements bench as back row cover in place of the injured Shunsuke Nunomaki.

Japan: 15 Kotaro Matsushima, 14 Lomano Lemeki, 13 Timothy Lafaele, 12 Harumichi Tatekawa, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Yu Tamura, 9 Yutaka Nagare, 8 Amanaki Mafi, 7 Michael Leitch (c), 6 Kazuki Himeno, 5 Shinya Makabe, 4 Wimpie van der Walt, 3 Jiwon Koo, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Keita Inagaki
Replacements: 16 Atsushi Sakate, 17 Shintaro Ishihara, 18 Asaeli Ai Valu, 19 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 20 Fetuani Lautami, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Sione Teaupa, 23 Yoshikazu Fujita

Date: Saturday, November 25
Venue: U Arena, Nanterre
Kick-off: 21:00 local (20:00 GMT)
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland), Joy Neville (Ireland)
TMO: Sean Davey (England)