Japan Name Roster for Pumas

Japanese Head Coach Jamie Joseph has named a 32-man roster for November. The number one Asian nation will play four test matches, the first of which is at home against Los Pumas on November 05. The remaining matches will be played in Europe.

Joseph’s first match in charge sees a roster missing many familiar names. Not included are Keita Inagaki (Panasonic Wild Knights), Hiroshi Yamashita (Kobelco Steelers), Hitoshi Ono (Toshiba Brave Lupus), Kazuhiko Usami (Canon Eagles), Michael Leitch (Toshiba Brave Lupus), Hendrik Tui (Suntory Sungoliath), Kaito Shigeno (NEC Green Rockets), Kosei Ono (Suntory Sungoliath), Male Sau (Yamaha Jubilo), Yoshikazu Fujita (Panasonic Wild Knights) and Tim Bennetts (Canon Eagles).

In total only twelve players remain from Rugby World Cup 2015. Joseph has named hooker Shota Horie (Panasonic Wild Knights) and fly half Harumichi Tatekawa (Kubota Spears) as co-captains.

With injuries factoring in and Joseph looking to the future he has named 17 uncapped players. More than half of the squad have therefore never played international rugby before.

JAPAN
Forwards: Masataka Mikami (Toshiba Brave Lupus, 33 caps), Satoshi Nakatani (Yamaha Jubilo, 0 caps), Koki Yamamoto (Yamaha Jubilo, 0 caps), Shota Horie (Panasonic Wild Knights, 44 caps), Takeshi Kizu (Kobelco Steelers, 43 caps), Takeshi Hino (Yamaha Jubilo, 0 caps), Kensuke Hatakeyama (Suntory Sungoliath, 75 caps), Heiichiro Ito (Yamaha Jubilo, 0 caps), Yasuo Yamaji (Canon Eagles, 0 caps), Kotaro Yatabe (Panasonic Wild Knights, 6 caps), Samuela Anise (Canon Eagles, 0 caps), Kyosuke Kajikawa (Toshiba Brave Lupus, 0 caps), Amanaki Lelei Mafi (NTT Shining Arcs, 9 caps), Yuhimaru Mimura (Yamaha Jubilo, 0 caps), Malgene Ilaua (Toshiba Brave Lupus, 0 caps), Uwe Helu (Yamaha Jubilo, 0 caps), Shunsuke Nunomaki (Panasonic Wild Knights, 0 caps), Shuhei Matsuhashi (Ricoh Black Rams, 0 caps)

Arrières: Fumiaki Tanaka (Panasonic Wild Knights, 54 caps), Yuki Yatomi (Yamaha Jubilo, 16 caps), Takahiro Ogawa (Toshiba Brave Lupus, 0 caps), Yu Tamura (NEC Green Rockets, 38 caps), Jumpei Ogura (NTT Shining Arcs, 0 caps), Timothy Lafaele (Coca-Cola Red Sparks, 0 caps), Harumichi Tatekawa (Kubota Spears, 46 caps), Kotaro Matsushima (Suntory Sungoliath, 18 caps), Akihito Yamada (Panasonic Wild Knights, 15 caps), Kenki Fukuoka (Panasonic Wild Knights, 17 caps), Lomano Lemeki (Honda Heat, 0 caps), Karne Hesketh (Munakata Sanix Blues, 14 caps), Amanaki Lotoahea (Ricoh Black Rams, 0 caps), Yasutaka Sasakura (Panasonic Wild Knights, 3 caps)

FIXTURES
Nov 5 – vs Argentina – Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo
Nov 12 – vs Georgia – Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi
Nov 19 – vs Wales – Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Nov 26 – vs Fiji – Stade de la Rabine, Vannes