Nervous Japan fight past Russia in RWC Opener

A nervous start from Japan saw the possibility for an upset in the RWC 2019 opener against Russia in Tokyo this morning. Appalling ball-handling and a lack of commitment to the breakdown from the shots saw the Bears competing well in the opening half. In the second half the pieces would slot together to see Japan winning 30-10 and claiming the important bonus point.

Japan’s fight to get past Russia would be forced by a shocking start. Fullback Will Tupou kicked from his 22 from which his opposite, Vasili Artemyev received and kicked it back. His up and under was a regulation take only for Tupou to make a massive blunder from which  Russia pounced.

Tupou’s error saw the ball sit-up for Kirill Golosnitskiy who ran over to score. Russia were delighted with Artemyev the first on hand to congratulate his teammate. Fly half Yuri Kushnarev added the difficult conversion to give Russia a 7-0 lead.

Similar errors would occur to Japan throughout the opening half but Russia would not convert the mistakes into further points. Instead Japan would go into the break with a 12-7 lead, doing so on the back of a double to winger Kotaro Matsushima.

The first Matsushima try was a team effort with smart play from fly half Yu Tamura and an utterly brilliant off-load from Timothy Lafaele putting Matsushima over.

A second opportunity mirroring the first eventuated and Matsushima again scored. Referee Nigel Owens awarded the try only for the TMO to confirm there had been a knock-on. Saving the day was Russian captain and fullback Artemyev whose tackle was a try-saver.

Russia would remain in the lead until the final minute before the interval. Scoring near the posts was Matsushima who finished off a 13 phase attack. Like his first try his second came from a beautiful off-load this time with the assist coming from Ryoto Nakamura.

Japan’s lead may well not have been. The officials missed a potential red card incident in which second-rower James Moore led with his shoulder and made contact to the head of Vasili Dorofeev. The impact forced off the Russian scrum-half and replays strongly indicated that it was intentional. For Moore a potential suspension is to come and possibly an early end to the RWC.

Japan were able to cool their nerves early in the second half. They would add to their scoring firstly from a Tamura penalty. Then flanker Lappies Labuschagne while completed a tackle was able to hold up the player and grab hold of the ball. He then ran 50 meters to score.

Russia’s commitment saw them fighting back and camping themselves deep in the Japanese 22. Following a ten minute period they would not break the defense to score a try though Kushnarev would land a penalty to make it a 20-10 scoreline.

Russia had earned respect which saw Tamura kicking a 65th minute penalty rather than  kick for the corner. Four minutes later came the decisive bonus point as Matsushima completed his hat-trick.

Russia have not been blessed by the tournament organizers. They play their second game on Tuesday, doing so against Samoa. Japan’s next game will be against Ireland on Saturday, September 28.

 

SCORING

JAPAN 30
Tries – K. Matsushima 3 (12’, 38’, 69’), L. Labushagne (47’)
Cons – Y. Tamura 1/3 (39’), R. Matsuda 1/1 (70’)
Pens – Y. Tamura 2/2 (44’, 64’)

RUSSIA 10
Tries – K. Golosnitskiy (5’)
Cons – Y. Kushnarev 1/1 (6’)
Pens – Y. Kushnarev 1/1 (60’)

 

TEAMS

JAPAN
1 Keita Inagaki (17 Isileli Nakajima 54’), 2 Shota Horie (16 Atsushi Sakate 75’), 3 Asaeli Valu (18 Ji-Won Koo 54’), 4 Wimpie van der Walt (19 Luke Thompson 61’), 5 James Moore, 6 Michael Leitch (capt.) (20 Hendrik Tui 71’), 7 Lappies Labuschagne, 8 Kazuki Himeno, 9 Yutaka Nagare (21 Fumiaki Tanaka 61’), 10 Yu Tamura (22 Rikiya Matsuda 66’), 11 Lomano Lemeki, 12 Ryoto Nakamura, 13 Timothy Lafaele, 14 Kotaro Matsushima, 15 Will Tupou (23 Ryo Yamanaka 71’)

RUSSIA
1 Valeri Morozov (17 Andrei Polivalov 65’), 2 Stanislav Selskiy (16 Evgeny Matveev 65’), 3 Kirill Gotovtsev (18 Azamat Bitiev 67’), 4 Andrei Ostrikov, 5 Bogdan Fedotko (19 Andrei Garbuzov 61’), 6 Vitali Zhivatov (20 Anton Sychev 65’), 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 8 Nikita Vavilin, 9 Vasili Dorofeev (21 Dmitri Perov 33’-HT, 74’), 10 Yuri Kushnarev (22 Ramil Gaisin 65’), 11 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 12 Dmitri Gerasimov (23 Vladislav Sozonov 67’), 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 14 German Davydov, 15 Vasili Artemyev (capt.)

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistants: Nic Berry (Australia) & Matthew Carley (England)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)