Willie Britz to lead Sunwolves against Chiefs

Editor

Loose forward Willie Britz will lead the Sunwolves when they welcome the Chiefs to Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday.

There is a rotational shift in the back three with Kotaro Matsushima moving from full-back to wing, while Ryuji Noguchi will wear the number 15 jersey.

Yu Tamura is at fly-half with Fumiaki Tanaka at scrum-half, while Michael Little replaces William Tupou at inside centre.

Japan captain Michael Leitch shifts from number eight to blindside, with Edward Quirk and Britz completing the loose trio.

Uwe Helu comes in at lock for Wimpie van der Walt, who is demoted to the bench. Finally, it is a brand new front row for the Sunwolves, with Jiwon Koo, Yusuke Niwai and Craig Millar being replaced by Hencus van Wyk, Shota Horie and Keita Inagaki.

Sunwolves: 15 Ryuji Noguchi, 14 Kotaro Matsushima, 13 Timothy Lafaele, 12 Michael Little, 11 Hosea Saumaki, 10 Yu Tamura, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Willem Britz (c), 7 Edward Quirk, 6 Michael Leitch, 5 Uwe Helu, 4 Kazuki Himeno, 3 Hencus van Wyk, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Keita Inagaki
Replacements: 16 Yusuke Niwai, 17 Craig Millar, 18 Jiwon Koo, 19 Wimpie van der Walt, 20 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 21 Yutaka Nagare, 22 Robbie Robinson, 23 William Tupou

Date: Saturday, March 24
Venue: Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium
Kick-off: 13:15 local (04:15 GMT)
Referee: William Houston (Australia)
Assistant referees: Aki Aso (Japan), Tasuku Kawahara (Japan)
TMO: Minoru Fuji (Japan)