Wales rekindle rugby love affair with Japan

BBC News

18 hours ago

Wales will rekindle its relationship with Japanese rugby as Matt Sherratt prepares his side for the two-Test tour.Wales have won 13 out of 14 matches against Japan whose sole victory came in 2013, with a 23-8 win in Tokyo masterminded by current head coach Eddie Jones.Wales are on a record 17-Test losing run and slipped to a lowest position of 12th in the world rugby rankings with Japan only one place below them.As the two sides prepare for a first international between the nations in more than eight years, there will be no room for sentiment.Before the two Test matches on July 5 and 12 in Kitakyushu and Kobe, BBC Sport reflects on the history between the two nations which stretches back to the first game in 1973.
The Golden Age
Wales' first four games against the Brave Blossoms were all non-cap internationals, and they ran riot in the first three.A 62-14, 11-try home win at Cardiff Arms Park in 1973 was followed by Wales touring Japan in 1975 with two emphatic victories. The 10-try 56-12 win in Osaka was followed by a 14-try 82-6 hammering in Tokyo which included a JPR Williams try hat-trick and 34 points for Phil Bennett.With the golden age of the 1970s gone, Wales limped to a 29-24 Arms Park win in 1983, a performance regarded by the Japanese as one of the best in their rugby history.Since then that has been surpassed by Brave Blossoms famously celebrating a World Cup pool win against South Africa in 2015 on their way to the quarter-finals, while the hosts defeated Scotland four years later to also reach the last eight of the global tournament.
World Cup meetings
There was a time when Wales and Japan were regular World Cup opponents with three group games in four tournaments between 1995 and 2007.The first came in the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, as Wales cruised to a 57-10 win in Bloemfontein, their only victory in the tournament as Gareth Thomas scored a hat-trick on debut. Eight days later, the Brave Blossoms were humiliated 145-17 by New Zealand.Wales profited from Japan's woes in their second game of the 1999 tournament, running in nine tries in a 64-15 win at the new Millennium Stadium.The visitors - notably outstanding wing Daisuke Ohata - actually gave the home crowd some early scares, but the game became about Neil Jenkins whose 19 points took him level with Michael Lynagh's world record of 911.The two sides again met in the World Cup in Cardiff in 2007 when Gareth Jenkins' side ran out 72-18 winners with 11 tries.Japan did make a game of it and scored a try in each half including a spectacular length-of-the-field effort finished off by Kosuke Endo, regarded as one of the great World Cup tries.
Lions occasions
Wales again visit Japan this summer when the British and Irish Lions are in Australia, just as they did in 2001 and 2013.On those two previous trips, there were far more Wales representatives with only Tomos Williams and Jac Morgan selected initially in 2025.In 2001, with Graham Henry leading the Lions, caretaker coach Lynn Howells took a development team on a two-Test trip.The tourists lost their opening game against Japan's premier club side Suntory, but a solid forward platform paved the way for Shane Williams to score four tries in a 64-10 first Test win in Osaka.Wales trailed by a point at half-time in the second international in Tokyo, but the visitors rallied after the break for a 53-30 win, Gareth Thomas getting a hat-trick and Tom Shanklin two tries on his debut.Twelve years later, it was Robin McBryde's turn to lead a shadow squad with head coach Warren Gatland and 15 Wales players on the Lions tour and other senior personnel rested.Wales managed to win the first Test 22-18 after a Harry Robinson try and the boot of Dan Biggar and Rhys Patchell on his debut.A week later, Japan claimed their first and so far only win over Wales with a sparkling second-half display to win the second Test 23-8 in Tokyo and draw the series.Craig Wing and Michael Broadhurst scored tries, while Ayumu Goramaru kicked 13 points. Wales led briefly in the second half through Tom Prydie's try, but rarely threatened Japan after that.Those two Japan tours were more than just results. Shanklin, Shane Williams, Gareth Thomas, Stephen Jones, Dwayne Peel, Gavin Henson, Mark Jones, Gareth Cooper and Kevin Morgan were part of the 2001 tour party and would become key figures in Welsh rugby's success over the next decade.In 2013, Biggar, Patchell and Liam Williams featured and the trio were to enjoy further success with Grand Slam, Six Nations and Lions tours to follow.
Cardiff dates
Outside of World Cup contests and Lions tours, Japan have also travelled to Cardiff sporadically over the years.The first official Test between the sides came in 1993, and Wales passed 50 points for the first time in their full international history.Ieuan Evans scored after just 45 seconds and Scott Gibbs got his first international score as the home side eased to a 55-5 success. Japan's only try fell to wing Ian Williams, who had already been capped 17 times by Australia.Wales' record victory came in 2004 when they hammered Japan 98-0 win at the Millennium Stadium.Colin Charvis got four tries, Shanklin a hat-trick, and Henson converted all 14 tries for a 100% kicking performance in Wales' last game before their 2005 Grand Slam campaign.Twelve years later, it was a very different story as replacement fly-half Sam Davies saved Wales' blushes at the Principality Stadium with an 80th-minute drop-goal.Yu Tamura's conversion of Amanaki Lotoahea's 76th-minute try almost earned Japan an historic draw.Wales had led by 11 points in the second half after tries by Dan Lydiate, Jamie Roberts and Sam Warburton, while wings Akihito Yamada and Kenki Fukuoka were Japan's other try-scorers.Leigh Halfpenny scored 15 points with the boot before Davies' timely intervention, while Japan number eight Amanaki Mafi was named man-of-the-match after a powerful display.Almost nine years has passed since that scare for Wales with more memories to be made in Japan in the next two weeks.
Head-to-head record
Non-capped TestsWales 62-14 Japan, Cardiff, 6 October 1973Japan 12-56 Wales, Osaka, 21 September 1975Japan 6-82 Wales, Tokyo, 24 September 1975Wales 29-24 Japan, Cardiff, 22 October 1983.Full TestsWales 55-5 Japan, Cardiff, 16 October 1993Wales 57-10 Japan, Bloemfontein, 27 May 1995 Wales 64-15 Japan, Cardiff, 9 October1999Japan 10-64 Wales, Osaka, 10 June 2001Japan 30-53 Wales, Tokyo, 17 June 2001Wales 98-0 Japan, Cardiff, 26 November 2004Wales 72-18 Japan, Cardiff, 20 September 2007Japan 18-22 Wales, Osaka, 8 June 2013Japan 23-8 Wales, Tokyo, 15 June 2013Wales 33-30 Japan, Cardiff, 19 November 2016.
Cultural links
There are many rugby links between Welsh and Japan that have not included matches.This dated back to Max Boyce's famous song 'Asso Asso Yogoshi' when Japan's rugby team arrived on these shores for the first time in 1973.Wales stars like Shane Williams, Liam Williams, Rhys Patchell, Hadleigh Parkes and Jake Ball have spent club stints there with the domestic game which is dominated by big-money company teams, whose cash has attracted many stars from the major rugby-playing nations.Wales and Japan did not meet in the tournament, but bonds were forged between the two nations. Wales' training base was in Kitakyushu where the city embraced Gatland's side.More than 15,000 turned up for a training sessions and memorable renditions of the Wales national anthem by the enthusiastic hosts after they had learned the words of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.The class of 2025 were welcomed back when they arrived last week and there will be more cultural events planned again this time around with a Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) off-the-field team arriving this week.So a friendly relationship remains, but Wales will know they can't afford more woe on the pitch in the next two weeks.