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Mistakes cost Japan victory against Wales

Japan coach Wataru Murata is hoping his side can cut out the mistakes that cost them victory over world champions Wales as the Cherry Blossoms slipped to a 12-10 loss.

Alex Cuthbert's second-half try earned the Welsh a narrow win and Japan now go into their next pool E game against England needing a victory to have any chance of progressing in the Cup competition.

'This will give us experience, but it wasn't a good game,' said Murata. 'The lineout and our scrums weren't good, we couldn't keep the ball and we made a lot of mistakes. If we hadn't lost the ball, we could have won the game. If we make the same mistakes in our next game then we'll lose. We don't usually make these kind of mistakes.'

Despite the win, Wales coach Paul John was disappointed with the performance, even if the side features few of the players who won the World Cup last year.

'It was a tough game. Japan made it really difficult and we made too many errors,' he said. 'We couldn't get our game going but we managed to dig ourselves out of it and that was the one real positive to take from the game.

'Our form's been like a rollercoaster so a game like that isn't a bad thing because it gives us a kick in the backside. Japan made it difficult so fair play to them.

'The World Cup was won with a completely different side and if we had the same players here there would be pressure on but we have players who have never played international sevens before.'

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