Japan and Uruguay lineups for match in Fukuoka

The Japan 15th ranked will host the 19th ranked Uruguay on Saturday in the first of two upcoming test matches between the countries. Los Teros are playing in Asia’s strongest rugby playing nation to prepare for the Rugby World Cup. Japan will play in the USA’s group, Pool A while Uruguay is to feature in Pool A.

Coaches Pablo Lemoine and Eddie Jones have undertaken differing approaches to the fixture. Japanese coach, Jones has continued with the policy used throughout the year of experimenting as wholesale changes to the starting lineup have been made from that which started against the World XV last Saturday.

In the front-row Hiroshi Yamashita of the Kobelco Steelers comes in for Kensuke Hatakeyama of Todd Clever’s first Japanese club, Suntory Sungoliath. Behind Yamashita Hitoshi Ono and Shoji Ito replace Luke Thompson and Justin Ives in the second-row with Thompson named on the bench and Ives’ World Cup dream ruined through injury.

Hendrik Tui moves from the side to the back of the scrum while Hayden Hopgood has been elevated to the run-on XV also playing in the back-row. Atsushi Hiwasa will start at scrumhalf with Kosei Ono playing outside him at fly half, Yu Tamura and Male Sau in the mid-field and the outstanding goalkicker Ayumu Goromaru will play fullback. Karne Hesketh also earns a start on one wing with Keisuke Uchida being retained on the other.

Lemoine, in contrast, has named a full-strength lineup and one likely to be close to the same team to face Wales on the opening weekend of the World Cup. Alejo Corral, Nicolás Klappenbach and Mario Sagario form an experienced and reliable front-row and will have a stern assignment against the respected Japanese scrum.

Captain Santiago Vilaseca will be joined in the second-row by Jorge Zerbino in potentially the strongest combination due to Rodrigo Capó Ortega missing the World Cup. Juan Manuel Gaminara, Diego Magno and Alejandro Nieto complete the starting forwards which sees the promising Matías Beer named instead on the bench.

Uruguay’s strongest asset, the halves combination of Agustín Ormaechea and Felipe Berchesi will be reunited this Saturday. Los Teros have a lot riding on the Frenvh based pairing who were so important to Uruguay’s successful qualification campaign.

Andres Vilaseca has been given an opportunity at inside centre, joining Joaquin Prada in the mid-field. It sees regular inside centre Alberto Román missing out while winger Leandro Leivas is also not to start but will play on the bench. Starting in the back-three will be Jeronimo Etcheverry, Santiago Gibernau and Gastón Mieres.

Kick-off is scheduled for 6am Uruguguayan time and the match will be streamed live online. The link is yet to be confirmed but Americas Rugby News will announce it as soon as we receive confirmation.

Japan
1 Masataka Mikami, 2 Shota Horie, 3 Hiroshi Yamashita, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 5 Shoji Ito, 6 Michael Leitch 7 Hayden Hopgood, 8 Hendrik Tui, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 10 Kosei Ono, 11 Keisuke Uchida, 12 Yu Tamura, 13 Male Sau, 14 Karne Hesketh, 15 Ayumu Goromaru

16 Takayuki Watanabe, 17 Hiroki Yuhara, 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 19 Luke Thompson, 20 Tsuyoshi Murata, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Toshiaki Hirose, 23 Yoshikazu Fujita

Uruguay
1 Alejo Corral, 2 Nicolas Klappenbach, 3 Mario Sagario, 4 Santiago Vilaseca, 5 Jorge Zerbino, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 7 Diego Magno, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Jeronimo Etcheverry, 12 Andres Vilaseca, 13 Joaquin Prada, 14 Santiago Gibernau, 15 Gastón Mieres

16 German Kessler, 17 Oscár Duran, 18 Carlos Arboleya, 19 Franco Lamanna, 20 Matias Beer, 21 Juan De Freitas, 22 Alejo Duran, 23 Leandro Leivas