Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Andrew Durutalo will start for the Sunwolves in their first ever Super Rugby match against the Lions at Prince Chichibu Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday. Durutalo will be come the second USA international to play Super Rugby, the first being Todd Clever, who spent two seasons with the Lions in 2009 and 2010.
The Eagles flanker starts in a multi-national back row alongside New Zealander Liaki Moli and Australian Ed Quirk. Manu Samoa international Tusi Pisi starts at flyhalf and South African Riaan Viljoen runs out at fullback for his third Super Rugby side, having previously represented the Cheetahs and Sharks.
Head coach Mark Hammett has also named seven members of Japan’s World Cup team in the run-on side, with another three on the bench. Shota Horie captains the side while Hitoshi Ono, Japan’s record cap holder with 96, will become the oldest player to make his Super Rugby debut at 37 years and 297 days.
The match kicks off at 1:15pm local time, 11:15pm Friday EST.
SUNWOLVES vs Lions
1 Keita Inagaki 2 Shota Horie (capt.) 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga 4 Timothy Bond 5 Hitoshi Ono 6 Liaki Moli 7 Andrew Durutalo 8 Ed Quirk 9 Atsushi Hiwasa 10 Tusi Pisi 11 Yasutaka Sasakura 12 Yu Tamura 13 Harumichi Tatekawa 14 Akihito Yamada 15 Riaan Viljoen
16 Masataka Mikami 17 Takeshi Kizu 18 Koki Yamamoto 19 Shinya Makabe 20 Yoshiya Hosoda 21 Kaito Shigeno 22 Derek Carpenter 23 Hajime Yamashita
