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Jamie Joseph has named seven new starters in his Japan team to play Argentina in Tokyo on Saturday, with another six new caps found on the bench. Only three forwards have featured in test rugby before – World Cup veterans Shota Horie, Kensuke Hatakeyama, and Amanaki Mafi. The back division is less experimental with first choice halfbacks Fumiaki Tanaka and Yu Tamura guiding the team and vice-captain Harumichi Tatekawa a key figure in the midfield.
Olympic 7s star Lomano Lemeki makes his XVs debut on the right wing alongside fellow new cap Amanaki Loto’ahea, also previously a 7s international. Fijian second row Samuela Anise makes his first appearance in a Japan shirt as does Tongan-born flanker Uwe Helu. Yamaha prop Satoshi Nakatani becomes the second-oldest player to debut for Japan with former no8 Ross Thompson the only other 35-year-old not to have been selected previously.
Other new names in the starting lineup include Toshiba lock Kyosuke Kajikawa and Yamaha flanker Yuhimaru Mimura. The bench has only two players with caps to their name – hooker Takeshi Kizu and second row Kotaro Yatabe. A pair of New Zealanders in loose forward Malgene Ilaua and inside back Timothy Lafaele could debut as replacements.
The match kicks off at 2:40pm local time, 2:40am Argentina time.
JAPAN
1 Satoshi Nakatani 2 Shota Horie (capt.) 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama 4 Kyosuke Kajikawa 5 Samuela Anise 6 Uwe Helu 7 Yuhimaru Mimura 8 Amanaki Mafi 9 Fumiaki Tanaka 10 Yu Tamura 11 Akihito Yamada 12 Harumichi Tatekawa 13 Amanaki Loto’ahea 14 Lomano Lemeki 15 Kotaro Matsushima
16 Takeshi Kizu 17 Koki Yamamoto 18 Heiichiro Ito 19 Kotaro Yatabe 20 Malgene Ilaua 21 Shuhei Matsuhashi 22 Takahiro Ogawa 23 Timothy Lafaele
