LONDON (Reuters) – Japan kept faith with all but one of the team that ran New Zealand close last month when they named their side to take on England at Twickenham on Saturday.
Coach Jamie Joseph on Thursday made only one switch at wing where Gerhard van den Heever comes in for Siosaia Fifita after the 38-31 loss in Tokyo to the All Blacks at the end of last month.
“As a team we’re very excited about going to Twickenham, we all know it’s a very different and unique rugby environment,” Joseph told a news conference on Thursday.
“It’s exciting because we play them in the World Cup next year, we are up against a tier one nation and the payers are raring to go after their performance against the All Blacks.”
Team: 15-Ryohei Yamanaka, 14-Kotaro Matsushima, 13-Dylan Riley, 12-Ryoto Nakamura, 11-Gerhard van den Heever, 10-Takuya Yamasawa, 9-Yutaka Nagare, 8-Tevita Tatafu, 7-Kazuki Himeno, 6-Michael Leitch, 5-Jack Cornelsen, 4-Warner Dearns, 3-Jiwon Koo, 2-Atsushi Sakate (captain), 1-Keita Inagaki
Replacements: 16-Kosuke Horikoshi, 17-Craig Millar, 18-Yusuke Kizu, 19-Wimpie van der Walt, 20-Pieter Labuschagne, 21-Naoto Saito, 22-Seungsin Lee, 23-Siosaia Fifita.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis)
