November Internationals 2025 : Wales v Japan

[MiketheSnow]

@Catogrande said in November Internationals 2025 : Wales v Japan:

A bit left field but what has happened to Taine Basham?Good player I thought but more importantly, great name.

Played for the wrong team - Dragons; bit of injury; and inconsistent, tries too hard at times and gives away YCs

[MiketheSnow]

No out and out open side for Wales - Reffell and Deaves in the squad - but Mann is solid and has a great engine.

Shutting down the Japanese pick & go is important. Mann is a great tackler.

[pooler fan]

@MiketheSnow Reffell isn't in the squad Mike.
I'd have picked Deaves to start the Japan game personally.
They thrive on quick ball, I just think picking a natural blindside at 7 is a risk given the opposition.
Hope I'm proved wrong though.
We need to shore up defensively this week, fell off far too many tackles last week, you can't miss 30 tackles and win a test match.

[pooler fan]

@Catogrande bit unlucky as Mike said he's had many injuries & the Dragons are awful which hasn't helped. Also stuck behind Jac Morgan, Reffell and a few others, it's the one position where we do seem to have some depth.
His move to Cardiff has reinvigorated him I think, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in a Welsh shirt at some point.

[cgrant]

Japan Team

Forwards

1 Kenta Kobayashi
2 Kenji Sato
3 Keijiro Tamefusa
4 Epineri Uluiviti
5 Warner Dearns (Captain)
6 Jack Cornelsen
7 Kanji Shimokawa
8 Faolua Makisi

Backs

9 Naoto Saito
10 Seungsin Lee
11 Tomoki Osada
12 Charlie Lawrence
13 Dylan Riley
14 Kippei Ishida
15 Yoshitaka Yazaki

Replacements

16 Shodai Hirao
17 Sho Furuhata
18 Shuhei Takeuchi
19 Harry Hockings
20 Tyler Paul
21 Kenta Fukuda
22 Shinya Komura
23 Kazuma Ueda

[sparky]

7-7 after 25 minutes.

[Steven Harris]

@sparky some soft YCs being dished out in this game

[Steven Harris]

@sparky i was gonna say , how bad are Wales not being good enogh to take advantage of a 2 man numerical advantage ?

[pooler fan]

Wales are bloody awful, no surprise I guess but still.
Japan down to 13 and we still can't take advantage. Shows the complete lack of confidence I guess.

[sparky]

Wales 14 Japan 10. Neither side playing with much confidence or fluency.

[Steven Harris]

Japan pay the price for an awful exit

[sparky]

Josh Adams given a 20 minute red card for reckless play.

[Steven Harris]

Is Warner Derns one NZ Rugby missed ? Hes such a good player
Imagine Holland and Derns in your lineout both got massive engines

[sparky]

Try Japan.

[Steven Harris]

Another awful red zone exit from Japan gifts Wales 7 points , why not just field the kick and just kick it out ..14 points gifted from 2 poor exits

[Steven Harris]

Japan are butchering this

[sparky]

Into the last ten minutes, Japan two points ahead.

[sparky]

Time running out for Wales.....

[sparky]

Japan less than three minutes from a famous win.

[sparky]

Wales are facing being a third ranked team at the 2026 Rugby World Cup.