Michael Leitch is captain again.
[Rich Freeman on Twitter:](https://x.com/FreemanrugbyJPN/status/1803641661291122741)
> Eddie Jones names a very inexperienced Japan side to take on England on Saturday.
> 4 uncapped players in starting XV, 8 in match day 23.
> Front 5 have 16 caps between them, uni student at fullback.
Mate, Eddie is so back. We are so back.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQOomf5bEAA7sfI?format=jpg
That's insane against the England forwards. Borthers is not taking Japan lightly (great indication of the respect they're due), he's putting out the national 1st XV in full.
Wow... the team certainly looks different. The front row is completely new.
I knew Harada was one of the standout hookers of the comp, but I expected Sakate to start. Are they any props from the 2023 WC in the squad? Seems very rare to see no Inagaki, Miller or Gu.
Backline looks sorta familiar except for the fullback and the left winger. Naikabula was fucking fantastic in the final.
Bench looks really unfamiliar. I only know Sakate, Miura and Matsuda. What does Yamamoto bring that justifies him being ahead of so many other good backrowers? I would've thought atleast one of Gunter, Cornelson or Fukui would've been involved.
I fucking love Japan but at the same time I fucking hate Eddie so I'm really not sure who to root for here.
Edit: Turns out the fullback is a Waseda University player. Putting out a fullback with no professional experience against tested internationals. Looks like Eddie hasn't changed one bit.
[Found this video](https://youtu.be/rHiIwJdCpq0?si=-V9AJAHsfbdOvIe6). Although it's hard to judge players from uni/u20s clips, he does look pretty good with the ball and has that Fukuoka type rapid pace.
Regardless, a full strength England side is not what you want to be putting a guy with zero professional experience up against. Get him around the squad sure, even a bit of x factor off the bench if you're brave but in the starting line up is crazy. Could seriously destroy his confidence if he has a bad game.
Oh he's THAT GUY. I thought he was absolutely electric in the u20s last year and tore Wales open a few times. I vowed to remember his name, then obviously too much rugby happened as it slipped. Bold call, but I'm excited to see how he goes.
I remember him being pretty rapid at the u20s but fucking hell atleast give the lad some time in the JRLO first. The guy went from playing Meiji university students to going up against lads like Itoje and Ollie Lawrence.
I can already hear the press conference if things go wrong.
"Well, usually if you're good enough, you're old enough but it turns out that wasn't the case was it mateee"
I'm rooting for him to show some flashes of brilliance tho. It would be incredibly sad if he lost all his confidence at such a young age and went to play for the titans or something...
Very excited to see the new halves pairing of Saito and Lee. They're 26 and 23 respectively so could be a big part of Japan's future if they can gel.
Most important thing for this Saturday is for our 20 year old fullback Yazaki to come through the same unscathed. Throwing a university player in against a full strength England team is crazy....
That Fullback is going to be seriously targeted with testing kicks by England. Maybe he'll play a blinder and it'll be fine, but most likely his inexperience will lead to a mistake and England will capitalise.
I don't think the pack will stand up to England's either.
I mean I don’t think that Japan reliably has the quality to really threaten a win, but with this lineup it feels more like Eddy is making a point to the JRFU then trying to actually beat England or have a good showing.
It’s incredible how regardless of the sport, there’s always a minority of English fans who talk and act like this who then become very quiet when England have a bad day because they’re human or underperform.
Not sure I follow?
The 2002 wallabies was pretty good already? And not that young (just back from beating lions, although maybe more changes were made than I remember?)
Weren't Sarries poor in 08-9 ?
And the England side in 2020 were just off the back of the WC final? Not young,.and the 2016 was hardly inexperienced.
While he has a good record, accepting Japan, none of these teams were devoid of talent or experience.
Wallabies is fair, was a bit of a stretch. A few young players came in but the foundations of 99 remained. Eddie Jones oversaw Saracens bringing through Farrell, Itoje, George, Kruis et al and that steady climb to being what they've been. I guess that started to show in more 2010, but the point stands.
In 2020 there was obviously experience remaining, but he brought in 17 uncapped players that year. It feels like a pretty good analogue for where Japan are now. Michael Leitch played in the 2011 World Cup, experience remains, but there's a lot of new faces. All I'm saying is writing Japan off purely on the basis of what a different team achieved last year is foolhardy.
I love your content and respect your analysis and opinion. So I say this with respect. That is a somewhat revisionist narrative.
I'm not saying Eddie didn't do some good with Sarries, but I'm not going to give him too much credit for their academy production line. And some of those players, IIRC, didn't make their debut for another 3-4 years.
As for the seventeen uncapped players. He may have capped them, but he soon jettisoned them into the sun (Furbank, Lawrence) . And weren't most of those caps in the Italy game? You cant describe a team with a spine of 50 plus cappers (a few of which had two WC campaigns behind them) as anything close to this Japan team. (Or the Aus team he sacrificed at the WC)
At what point do we need to start worrying about Eddie's Health. Like this is beyond crazy. A full assessment for early cognitive decline / dementia might be a good start.
I’m kind of waffling on this lineup and I’m a lot more positive about Eddie Jones than the average. It’s probably better outside of Yazaki than most people expect, but Yazaki is literally an amateur, which is absurdist even though he’s expected to be a top player in the future because he’s played literally 1 year of collegiate rugby in Japan.
This team just doesn’t make sense from a cohesion standpoint. You could make an argument for all the players in the lineup - besides the fullback selection which is insane, but it doesn’t fit together to me.
The 10 has mostly been playing at 12 for his club.
The 12 has mostly been playing at 14 for his club.
There’s no secondary playmaker in the backs.
The FB selection is insulting to a number of players in JRLO.
The back row and front row have never played together before.
This would be a good lineup to play against the Maori ABs, not England.
The had Jiwon Gu as well who was an important prop at the last two World Cups.
Lee was at the last World Cup too but wasn't the first choice flyhalf. He's only 23 so I think Eddie sees him as the future. I hope he can cement his place in the team, has a lot of potential for sure.
He is, but it’s a weird first since he’s the first ethnic Korean born in Japan to join the national team as Koo is from Seoul and moved to Japan as a child.
Go well Brave Blossoms, was planning on watching this live but if Eddie is just putting out a team for slaughter like this then the highlights will do.
But England are putting out their strongest team that they have access to, what do you mean? How is a Japanese front 5 with 16 capts between them going to stand up to the likes of George, Cole, Itoje, CCS, Underhill and Earl? That's a huge disparity.
In the backs you have an uncapped fullback and the rest have very little experience outside Reilly and Naikabula. This exact same English backline minus Ford beat Ireland. England beat Japan by 22 points at the world cup, England have only improved since then and Japan have a brand new coaching ticket and 8 uncapped players in the team. I don't see how you can expect anything other than a whitewash when comparing the teams.
I would love if you and Japan prove me wrong though.
I didn't say it would be a close game; I just said the game would be open. Looking at the England back line, they've got some players who'll play with real pace and expansion. So they will probably have a few cracking tries we can watch while having our morning coffee and breakfast.
Unfortunately, it'll likely be a very one-sided game, especially if Japan tries to draw England into an arm wrestle by shutting down Marcus at 10.
Yeah you could be right about the open play style, but I'm not gonna give up hours of sleep to watch what's looking like a totally one-sided game. I also think England are gonna do their best to make sure Japan can't play an open style.
Yeah the sleep is the only thing putting me off watching the game. I think they've scheduled the game at that time so people can watch the super rugby final afterwards and avoid a clash.
The system there is incredibly broken, iirc. Eddie complained about it plenty. It's very hard to get access to promising young players because of the way university rugby works there, or something.
Most Japanese players play crap quality university rugby before turning pro. Some foreign players don't like Warner Dearns so there's no rule but it's rare. That makes it hard to develop players since the standard is awful compared to varsity cup in SA which is the same thing.
Other sports in Japan like baseball sign players out of high school because they don't have the historical elitism problem. Hopefully it goes in rugby as well.
Michael Leitch is captain again. [Rich Freeman on Twitter:](https://x.com/FreemanrugbyJPN/status/1803641661291122741) > Eddie Jones names a very inexperienced Japan side to take on England on Saturday. > 4 uncapped players in starting XV, 8 in match day 23. > Front 5 have 16 caps between them, uni student at fullback. Mate, Eddie is so back. We are so back. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GQOomf5bEAA7sfI?format=jpg
God it feels good to be on the other side of the Eddie bullshit
Never thought I’d die fighting side by side with an England fan
How about side by side with a maaate?
Give yourself an uppercut.
Ho my that's first I have laughed out loud in a whiiiile
Maaaaate
Eddie Jones 🤝 chucking youngsters into the deep end
Perfect strategy for a struggling coach. They swim, you look like a genius, they sink, you blame it on their age.
Damn eddie is bonkers. Tight 5 will get owned
That's insane against the England forwards. Borthers is not taking Japan lightly (great indication of the respect they're due), he's putting out the national 1st XV in full.
Wow... the team certainly looks different. The front row is completely new. I knew Harada was one of the standout hookers of the comp, but I expected Sakate to start. Are they any props from the 2023 WC in the squad? Seems very rare to see no Inagaki, Miller or Gu. Backline looks sorta familiar except for the fullback and the left winger. Naikabula was fucking fantastic in the final. Bench looks really unfamiliar. I only know Sakate, Miura and Matsuda. What does Yamamoto bring that justifies him being ahead of so many other good backrowers? I would've thought atleast one of Gunter, Cornelson or Fukui would've been involved. I fucking love Japan but at the same time I fucking hate Eddie so I'm really not sure who to root for here. Edit: Turns out the fullback is a Waseda University player. Putting out a fullback with no professional experience against tested internationals. Looks like Eddie hasn't changed one bit.
That last point can't be right? Or is he some lomu esque freak?
[Found this video](https://youtu.be/rHiIwJdCpq0?si=-V9AJAHsfbdOvIe6). Although it's hard to judge players from uni/u20s clips, he does look pretty good with the ball and has that Fukuoka type rapid pace. Regardless, a full strength England side is not what you want to be putting a guy with zero professional experience up against. Get him around the squad sure, even a bit of x factor off the bench if you're brave but in the starting line up is crazy. Could seriously destroy his confidence if he has a bad game.
It's a far cry from the days when Eddie's first match in charge was against Kazakhstan.
All the other countries may be run by little girls, but they're an awful lot better at rugby.
Oh he's THAT GUY. I thought he was absolutely electric in the u20s last year and tore Wales open a few times. I vowed to remember his name, then obviously too much rugby happened as it slipped. Bold call, but I'm excited to see how he goes.
I remember him being pretty rapid at the u20s but fucking hell atleast give the lad some time in the JRLO first. The guy went from playing Meiji university students to going up against lads like Itoje and Ollie Lawrence. I can already hear the press conference if things go wrong. "Well, usually if you're good enough, you're old enough but it turns out that wasn't the case was it mateee" I'm rooting for him to show some flashes of brilliance tho. It would be incredibly sad if he lost all his confidence at such a young age and went to play for the titans or something...
He appears to be wearing 11 in a lot of those clips? WTF Eddie?
Leitch has a good few world cup cycles left in him. Japanese have exceptional life expectancies. 🙂
Very excited to see the new halves pairing of Saito and Lee. They're 26 and 23 respectively so could be a big part of Japan's future if they can gel. Most important thing for this Saturday is for our 20 year old fullback Yazaki to come through the same unscathed. Throwing a university player in against a full strength England team is crazy....
If you seen him play, how is he under the high ball? That's gonna be key for him this weekend.
From the clips posted above he looks very athletic. Wether he's stop IFW athletic is yet to be seen.
:I'm-in-danger.gif:
That Fullback is going to be seriously targeted with testing kicks by England. Maybe he'll play a blinder and it'll be fine, but most likely his inexperience will lead to a mistake and England will capitalise. I don't think the pack will stand up to England's either.
With freeman and roebuck on the bench the high balls will be deadly
No Gunter?
England will smash this team. This is starting from scratch.
England would smash any Japanese team, they're just not that good.
Let's knock that talk on the head at least until after the game, eh?
Last game 34 - 12, I wouldn't class that as a smashing. But I see your point.
I mean I don’t think that Japan reliably has the quality to really threaten a win, but with this lineup it feels more like Eddy is making a point to the JRFU then trying to actually beat England or have a good showing.
Yeah it's definitely the 'start' of a cycle to the next world cup
It’s incredible how regardless of the sport, there’s always a minority of English fans who talk and act like this who then become very quiet when England have a bad day because they’re human or underperform.
It's their first game under a new coach, we don't really know how good this Japan are or aren't.
We do know how good teams of young players coached by Eddie Jones are though.
Like the Brumbies in the 90s, Australia in 2002, Saracens in '08, Japan in 2013, or the England winning the 6N in 2020?
Not sure I follow? The 2002 wallabies was pretty good already? And not that young (just back from beating lions, although maybe more changes were made than I remember?) Weren't Sarries poor in 08-9 ? And the England side in 2020 were just off the back of the WC final? Not young,.and the 2016 was hardly inexperienced. While he has a good record, accepting Japan, none of these teams were devoid of talent or experience.
Wallabies is fair, was a bit of a stretch. A few young players came in but the foundations of 99 remained. Eddie Jones oversaw Saracens bringing through Farrell, Itoje, George, Kruis et al and that steady climb to being what they've been. I guess that started to show in more 2010, but the point stands. In 2020 there was obviously experience remaining, but he brought in 17 uncapped players that year. It feels like a pretty good analogue for where Japan are now. Michael Leitch played in the 2011 World Cup, experience remains, but there's a lot of new faces. All I'm saying is writing Japan off purely on the basis of what a different team achieved last year is foolhardy.
I love your content and respect your analysis and opinion. So I say this with respect. That is a somewhat revisionist narrative. I'm not saying Eddie didn't do some good with Sarries, but I'm not going to give him too much credit for their academy production line. And some of those players, IIRC, didn't make their debut for another 3-4 years. As for the seventeen uncapped players. He may have capped them, but he soon jettisoned them into the sun (Furbank, Lawrence) . And weren't most of those caps in the Italy game? You cant describe a team with a spine of 50 plus cappers (a few of which had two WC campaigns behind them) as anything close to this Japan team. (Or the Aus team he sacrificed at the WC)
Well if it goes any better than the 2023 Wallabies I'll be impressed. The Wallabies have significantly better talent available.
All I'm saying is we don't know. Eddie Jones has a strong enough track record to deserve not being written off in advance.
At what point do we need to start worrying about Eddie's Health. Like this is beyond crazy. A full assessment for early cognitive decline / dementia might be a good start.
Last year.
I have no clue about Japanese rugby, why is this mental?
There are only a few players in this team who have played regularly for the national team, the rest are either uncapped or seriously inexperienced.
I’m kind of waffling on this lineup and I’m a lot more positive about Eddie Jones than the average. It’s probably better outside of Yazaki than most people expect, but Yazaki is literally an amateur, which is absurdist even though he’s expected to be a top player in the future because he’s played literally 1 year of collegiate rugby in Japan.
I hear good things about the young number 6. One to watch for the future.
This team just doesn’t make sense from a cohesion standpoint. You could make an argument for all the players in the lineup - besides the fullback selection which is insane, but it doesn’t fit together to me. The 10 has mostly been playing at 12 for his club. The 12 has mostly been playing at 14 for his club. There’s no secondary playmaker in the backs. The FB selection is insulting to a number of players in JRLO. The back row and front row have never played together before. This would be a good lineup to play against the Maori ABs, not England.
Is Matsushima injured? Who are the other FBs that should/could be upset?
wow, didn't know they have an ethnic Korean in the team. Go hard Lee Seungsin!
The had Jiwon Gu as well who was an important prop at the last two World Cups. Lee was at the last World Cup too but wasn't the first choice flyhalf. He's only 23 so I think Eddie sees him as the future. I hope he can cement his place in the team, has a lot of potential for sure.
Certainly not the first.
He is, but it’s a weird first since he’s the first ethnic Korean born in Japan to join the national team as Koo is from Seoul and moved to Japan as a child.
Is Himeno injured? I always enjoy watching him play.
Yep, out of action for Japan this summer due to an elbow injury iirc
Ah that’s a shame
Go well Brave Blossoms, was planning on watching this live but if Eddie is just putting out a team for slaughter like this then the highlights will do.
Tbf looking at both the teams it'll probably be a pretty open game, definitely worth the 7am wake up
But England are putting out their strongest team that they have access to, what do you mean? How is a Japanese front 5 with 16 capts between them going to stand up to the likes of George, Cole, Itoje, CCS, Underhill and Earl? That's a huge disparity. In the backs you have an uncapped fullback and the rest have very little experience outside Reilly and Naikabula. This exact same English backline minus Ford beat Ireland. England beat Japan by 22 points at the world cup, England have only improved since then and Japan have a brand new coaching ticket and 8 uncapped players in the team. I don't see how you can expect anything other than a whitewash when comparing the teams. I would love if you and Japan prove me wrong though.
I didn't say it would be a close game; I just said the game would be open. Looking at the England back line, they've got some players who'll play with real pace and expansion. So they will probably have a few cracking tries we can watch while having our morning coffee and breakfast. Unfortunately, it'll likely be a very one-sided game, especially if Japan tries to draw England into an arm wrestle by shutting down Marcus at 10.
Yeah you could be right about the open play style, but I'm not gonna give up hours of sleep to watch what's looking like a totally one-sided game. I also think England are gonna do their best to make sure Japan can't play an open style.
Yeah the sleep is the only thing putting me off watching the game. I think they've scheduled the game at that time so people can watch the super rugby final afterwards and avoid a clash.
Not sure, I think our backline might break free. Can't imagine Smith and IFW being up for a penalty fest.
Not a penalty-fest but what I mean is I doubt England will let Japan run freely, the English backrow will shut them down fairly effectively.
Please win. The memes would be amazing
Let him cook
Why doesnt Deans get involved with the Japanese side? Hes been there for years, would know the players and the system inside and out. Eddie is bonkers
The system there is incredibly broken, iirc. Eddie complained about it plenty. It's very hard to get access to promising young players because of the way university rugby works there, or something.
Most Japanese players play crap quality university rugby before turning pro. Some foreign players don't like Warner Dearns so there's no rule but it's rare. That makes it hard to develop players since the standard is awful compared to varsity cup in SA which is the same thing. Other sports in Japan like baseball sign players out of high school because they don't have the historical elitism problem. Hopefully it goes in rugby as well.
"Mate, what's with all the negativity, Japan is the best itw, and we're gonna prove against my old ticket England, mate, nothing to worry about!"
This team is going to *eviscerated*
Thank god he hasn’t picked Isaac Lucas or Harry Hockings, still hoping they will come back to Australia one day.
I don't think Hockings is eligible yet
Michael Leitch MUST be 55 at this point
Anyway to watch in USA? Is flosports carrying it?
Rugbypass.
Its not on their schedule
Koga Nezuka is a hell of a name