New Japan coach Jamie Joseph upbeat despite big loss to Argentina
Pumas romp to 54-20 win in Tokyo but Brave Blossoms still show quality with 13 uncapped players
The history books will record Japan’s first rugby game under new coach Jamie Joseph as a big 54-20 loss to Argentina yesterday, but that would be misleading.
Despite coming into the game in Tokyo with 13 uncapped players on the back of two short mini-camps, the Brave Blossoms still showed some quality against the more experienced Pumas.
“Argentina have played New Zealand, South Africa and Australia twice each, while we’ve had one scrum session,” Joseph said of the two teams’ contrasting summers. And it was the intensity – or lack of it – that the players are used to that proved to be the difference between the two sides.
Argentina, semi-finalists at last year’s Rugby World Cup, were superb for much of the game.
Nicolas Sanchez scored two tries, three penalties and five conversions for a personal tally of 29 points. Matias Moroni and Santiago Cordero both bagged a brace of five-pointers and Tomas Cubelli scored his team’s seventh try as the Pumas ripped loose in the second half.
“It was a tough game. Japan are a good attacking side that are hard to defend [against],” said Pumas scrum half Martin Landajo. “But in the second half we got some opportunities and made them right. Maybe Japan tired in the second half so we could make some good moves.”