John Kirwan announces Japan’s match day squad for their upcoming pre-World Cup encounter against Italy
The Japanese national Rugby Union team's head coach, John Kirwan, has announced his match day squad for their upcoming warm up match against Italy.
Azzurri’s will host Japan at the Stadio Dino Manuzzi, Cesana on Saturday, August 13. Kirwan announced his squad on Thursday, August 11, and the union’s official website confirmed details regarding
the line-up.
Commenting on the occasion, Kirwan said that he is planning to give most of his players a game day before their 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) inaugural game against the France. He added, “Everyone
wants to play against France so I have to give them the chance to prove themselves.”
Kirwan has also hinted that the same team will take the field against the USA Eagles team, in their second World Cup preparation game. He said, "I have named the team for this game and the
one against the United States [on Aug. 21],”
Kirwan added that his side needs to put strong effort towards their training in order to achieve success against the strong Azzurri’s side. He termed Saturday’s game as an important game for
them. Kirwan further added, “The Italian scrum is one of the best in the world and they are very good at frustrating the opposition.”
Kirwan termed the team as a good combination of youth and experience. Japanese Rugby Union club, Toyota Verblitz’s flanker Takashi Kikutani is named as the captain for their pre-World Cup encounters.
Besides Toshiba Brave Lupus winger, Takehisa Usuzuki, the backs line consist of the experience back lines player, which includes, Shaun Webb, Kosuke Endo, Koji TAIRA and Ryan Nicholas.
Nottingham’s Arlidge James will start the match at the fly position and Fumiaki Tanaka joins him to complete the halfback pair. The duo of Toshizumi Kitagawa and Justin Ives form the second
row pair, which will be followed by the trio of Ryukoliniasi Holani, Michael Leitch and Takashi in the back row forwards.
Earlier this year, Japan won the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) 2011 Pacific Nations Cup, and they will be eyeing to maintain their momentum in their upcoming matches.
Japan’s squad for their Saturday, August 13 encounter includes,
Starting XV: 15 Shaun Webb (Coca Cola West Red Sparks) , 14 Kosuke Endo (Toyota Verblitz) , 13 Koji TAIRA (Suntory Sungoliath) , 12 Ryan Nicholas (Suntory Sungoliath) , 11 Takeisa USUZUKI (Toyota
Brave Lupus) , 10 ARLIDGE James (Nottingham) , 9 Fumiaki Tanaka (Panasonic Wild Knights) , 8 Ryukoliniasi Holan (Panasonic Wild Knights) , 7 Michael Leitch (Toshiba Brave Lupus) , 6 KIKUTANI Takashi (Toyota Verblitz) , 5 Toshizumi KITAGAWA (Toyota Verblitz)
, Justin 4 IVES (Panasonic Wild Knights) , 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama (Suntory Sungoliath) , 2 Shota HORIE (Panasonic Wild Knights) , 1 Hisateru HIRASHIMA (Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers).
Replacements: 16 Hiroki Yuhara (Toshiba Brave Lupus) , 17 Nozomu Fujita (Honda Heat) , 18 Luke THOMPSON (Kintetsu Liners) , 19 Tadasuke Nishihara (Panasonic Wild Knights) , Atsushi HIWASA 20
(Suntory Sungoliath) , 21 Alisi TUPUAILAI (Canon Eagles) , 22 Murray Williams (Toyota Industry Shuttles).
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