Japan name side to face Scotland
Japan stand-in head coach Scott Wisemantel named his side on Thursday for Saturday's November Test with Scotland at Murrayfield.
Japan stand-in head coach Scott Wisemantel named his side on Thursday for their second Test of November, against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The starting XV, which will once again be led by Toshiaki Hirose, shows three changes to the side that took to the field last weekend for the 54-6 loss to the All Blacks in Tokyo.
Luke Thompson and Shinya Makabe replace Hitoshi Ono and Shoji Ito in the second-row, while Kosei Ono comes in at fly-half in place of Harumichi Tatekawa, who was forced to pull out of the European tour as the result of injury.
Masataka Mikami, Shota Horie and Kensuke Hatakeyama are rewarded for their efforts in the scrum last weekend by keeping their places in the front-row, while the back-row also remains unchanged with Hendrik Tui and Michael Broadhurst lining up alongside Ryu Koliniasi Holani.
Fumiaki Tanaka partenrs Ono at halfback, with Craig Wing and Male Sa'u in the centres, Hirose and Kenki Fukuoka on the wings and Ayumu Goromaru at fullback.
“We want to move the ball and play at pace,” said Ono.
Aside from Hitoshi Ono dropping down the bench, the one other change among the replacements sees Atsushi Hiwasa named as reserve scrumhalf, after Kosei Ono had been asked to cover both halfback positions last weekend.
“It's going to be fun playing in such a great stadium as Murrayfield,” Hirose said. “I'm looking forward to showing everyone the Japan Way of rugby and for us to make history and beat a Top 10 nation away from home for the first time.”
Japan: 15 Ayumu Goromaru, 14 Toshiaki Hirose (c), 13 Male Sau, 12 Craig Wing, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Kosei Ono, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani, 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Shinya Makabe, 4 Luke Thompson, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Masataka Mikami.
Replacements: 16 Yusuke Aoki, 17 Yusuke Nagae, 18 Hiroshi Yamashita, 19 Hitoshi Ono, 20 Takashi Kikutani, 21 Atsushi Hiwasa, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Yoshikazu Fujita.
Date: Saturday, November 9
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT
Venue: Murrayfield
Referee: JP Doyle (England)
Assistant Referees: Leighton Hodges (Wales), Greg Garner (England)
TMO: Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)