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In the 2016 November Internationals Argentina played a rare four four matches. The first of these was against Japan in Tokyo. It followed a disappointing Rugby Championship campaign and came before matches in the UK.
Los Pumas entered as favorites, though the Brighton Miracle meant that a strong showing was required. Argentina did deliver as the backs ran in seven tries with Santiago Cordero, Matías Moroni and Nicolás Sánchez each scoring twice.
For Sánchez the performance was a personal best. The Tucumán fly half surpassed his 25 points against Tonga from RWC 2015 to score 29 against the Japanese in Tokyo.
Japan were playing their first match under Jamie Joseph. The former All Black and Japanese player went on to make history with Japan at RWC 2019. Officially, this all began against Daniel Hourcade’s Pumas in November 2016.
Joseph’s line-up for the match had some prominent names. Among them were hooker Shota Horie; N8 Amanaki Mafi; scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka; fly half Yu Tamura; winger Akihito Yamada; and fullback Kotaro Matsushima.
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