Japan toils to see off SKorea
Print Edition
ITS focus firmly on this year’s World Cup, Japan struggled to beat South Korea 56-30 yesterday in the opening game of the inaugural Asian Rugby Championship.
The Brave Blossoms, forced into several changes through injury and Super Rugby commitments, made a string of handling errors in Incheon in a display that will hardly have struck terror into World Cup opponents South Africa, Scotland, Samoa and the United States.
“We were a bit rusty and sloppy for most parts of the game,” Japan coach Eddie Jones told local media. “Korea played well for the first 30 minutes and we gave them some points which got their spirits up. But our focus is the World Cup.”
Japan found itself in a hole at 3-17 down but tries from Hayden Hopgood and Chihito Matsui, making his international debut, stopped the rot and a penalty try sent the visitors into halftime leading 22-20. The Japanese stepped up their game after the break and could have won by a wider margin had the normally reliable Ayumu Goromaru brought his kicking boots, though the full-back finished with 16 points.
The Asian Championship replaces the Asian Five Nations with Japan competing against South Korea and China’s Hong Kong in the top tier.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
