Wales v Japan: Five takeaways as ‘clock-in-the-red composure’ and a ‘tackle machine’ steal a last-gasp victory
Wales celebrate after Jarrod Evans' match-winning kick while, inset, Japan's Harry Hockings illegally clattered Alex Mann.
After a last-gasp, 24-23 victory for Wales over Japan in Cardiff on Saturday, here’s our five takeaways from the Autumn Nations Series fixture at Principality Stadium.
The top line
This was brutally tough going for Wales, but they stole the victory in the end thanks to Jarrod Evans’ clock-in-the-red composure off the kicking tee. To say they were relieved would be the understatement of the year. They celebrated like they had just won the Six Nations.
That’s what happens when you are a team that has won just one Test match in the last 20 coming into this latest outing. Getting things to hum for even a small chunk of the match was a considerable challenge, so when they saw Evans’ kick go between the uprights, the outpouring of joy was understandable.
Their low confidence had been evident all the way through this fixture. It started with how their early first-half lead lasted less than 10 minutes. Dan Edwards’ dancing feet had given them the very welcome boost of a converted try, but they had their pocket picked with a sweeping Japanese response on 15 minutes.
Kippei Ishida was the beneficiary at the end of the counterattack and the limitations to what Wales were trying to manufacture under new coach Steve Tandy were further laid bare by their inability to cash in on the Matthew Carley effect.
The attention-grabbing English referee sin-binned two Japanese players – Epineri Uluiviti and Faulua Makisi – during a four-minute period that should have gladdened Welsh hearts.
Instead, the numerical advantage, which included six minutes up against just 13 visiting players, became the latest stick to beat them with as they frittered away the opportunity to break the stalemate, and this irritation then worsened on the blow of half-time.
With Japan attacking, the experienced Josh Adams lost the run of himself, needlessly firing an illegal shot on Ishida at a breakdown that resulted in him getting yellow-carded.
There was relief that Seungsin Lee’s kick for the lead didn’t have the accuracy and the half-time whistle sounded, but before the second half got going the hosts learned that the Adams sanction had been upgraded to a 20-minute red card, steepening their task.
The situation looked bleak when Lee kicked a 48th-minute penalty for a 10-7 lead to punish an offside but Louis Rees-Zammit celebrated his first Test start since his return from the NFL by diving in at the corner for the 51st-minute try that Edwards converted for 14-10.
Surely Wales wouldn’t blow it from here? They very nearly did. Having given Lee a straightforward penalty kick to cut the margin to one point, Makisi burrowed over from a maul for a converted try and a 20-14 lead.
Nick Tompkins, the sub sent on when Adams’ red card expired, quickly had the Welsh back in front with a converted try, but it was immediately scrubbed out as an obstruction put Lee back on the tee to nudge Japan 23-21 ahead.
The clock wound down and it had Japan on the cusp of a historic away win before referee Carley returned to card duty, sending Harry Hockings to the sin-bin for his collision with the whiplashed Alex Mann.
This 80th-minute penalty was sent to the 22 and from there the Welsh maul reached the five before Carley’s arm again came out. When play stopped, they pointed at the posts and Evans gleefully did the rest.
20-minute red card window
Eddie Jones insisted in the wake of last weekend’s ultimately heavy loss to Ireland that Japan had a chance of winning… and they did. Turning around just 10-17 down at the break with a man up due to an Irish yellow card gave them the perfect opportunity to come out firing in the second half and test the resolve of Andy Farrell’s unconvincing side.
To Jones’ discredit, the Japanese failed to fire a single shot in that yellow card window, and they had no one but themselves to blame when they ran out of gas later on and wilted against the up-tempo contribution of the Irish bench.
The pattern of play against beleaguered Wales, though, offered Jones a chance at redemption. Having gamely survived two first-half yellow cards without conceding, the onus switched from Japan’s defence to attack following the Adams yellow that was ungraded to red over the course of the interval.
Japan only eventually ‘won’ this 20-minute window 13-7, courtesy of a try in the final play before Wales were allowed to go back to 15 with Tompkins coming on for Adams.
This failure to win the red card period by a more convincing margin ultimately cost the Japanese the match. While Jones’ charges have moments where they are easy on the eye and you can’t help but admire their pluck, they don’t have that killer instinct that won them so many admirers at back-to-back Rugby World Cups in 2015 and 2019.
Jones will, of course, point out that he still has the guts of two years to fix this wounding weakness before they play at the finals in Australia, but scars like this one in Cardiff are painful.
Tandy’s defence
New Wales head coach Tandy earned his stripes marshalling the Scottish defence under Gregor Townsend, but implementing his area of expertise back in his homeland is proving quite a tall order.
Rather than appoint an out-and-out specialist assistant to run the D, the head coach has leaned into this section along with the part-time Dan Lydiate, the famed chop tackler from back in his playing day.
Last Sunday’s first-day unveiling was an occasion to forget as Argentina ran in eight tries to win by a record 52-28 score and while there was an improvement against Japan, the commitment to getting it right didn’t fully materialise across the board and it left them within a whisker of another damaging loss.
There can be solace taken in the attitude of the likes of the energetic Olly Cracknell in the tackle and there were some encouraging first-half turnovers in their own 22, but the all-round connectivity required to quell the visitors wasn’t there.
They had a clear warning before Japan scored their first half try: No.8 Makisi was in acres of space but lacked the hand/eye coordination to securely fetch Lee’s sweet crosskick into the space and punish the Welsh.
Warning signs weren’t heeded and instead of building on an early seven-point advantage, they were sucked into a draining battle that they very nearly lost.
The Carley card show
The more World Rugby talk about simplifying and speeding up the game, the more unconvinced you become by the way they continue to handle indiscipline. If it’s confusing for avid rugby fans, imagine what it’s like for people with little or no background in the game.
The governing body’s long-term blueprint is to cash in royally at the USA Rugby World Cup in 2031, but taking the sport to a new market is an idea that is currently flawed by the applications of the cards.
Explaining to people new to the game why one yellow card was a 20-minute red and two other yellow cards were just yellow is a complicated scenario and a trick is being missed by referring these incidents to the foul play bunker for review.
Add to that how it was too late in the game for us to learn if the 80th-minute yellow was just a yellow or worthy of greater punishment.
The referee does have the technology to explain decisions, but when directives are coming from the bunker after a review, we don’t get to hear from this particular individual to point out why he has come to his decision. This has to change.
Tackle-machine Cracknell
A match against the likes of Japan presented an opportunity for the lesser names on the Welsh scene to make a splash but rather than talking about some young gun who lit up the imagination, it was the 31-year-old Leicester No.8 who stole the show as a starter six days after he finally made his long-awaited Test debut as a sub .
On-the-whistle stats from the Principality credited him with a whopping 28 tackles. That is the sort of contribution that the wobbling Welsh have been craving for, while he was also very industrious with the ball in hand. He was a pleasure to watch.
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