Key events
TRY! England 59 – 14 Japan (Tom Roebuck)
69 mins. Harry Randall slides a sensible kick into touch in the Japan 22, which Isiekwe then steals in the the lineout. Three phases later a kick from Fin Smith finds Roebuck who grabs his first international try.
TRY! England 52 – 14 Japan (Luke Cowan-Dickie)
65 mins. New winger Tom Roebuck finds himself in space and bearing down on the Japanese line from a first phase lineout attack. He cuts back inside before being stopped by the Japanese scramble, but the second wave of attack from England has Cowan-Dickie grabbing another try.
TRY! England 45 – 14 Japan (Kazuki Himeno)
62 mins. Another delightful try from Japan, all pacy phases, great angles and confident offloads. The start in their own half and break the line with Osada’s run that Marcus Smith halts at fullback, but the ball is kept alive and put through more hands to find Himeno who cuts a lovely angle to dive over.
TRY! England 45 – 7 Japan (Luke Cowan-Dickie)
59 mins. An England catch and drive from a 5m lineout is halted immediately by the Japanese defence, so the ball is carried from the base by Cowan-Dickie who wrestles through a couple of tackles to force his way over.
Marcus Smith misses the conversion.
57 mins. Another decent platform for Japan as they move from a midfield scrum via a strong Fifita carry, but it’s wasted as the ball is fumbled by sub Akiyama.
TRY! England 40 – 7 Japan (George Furbank)
54 mins. Japan put themselves under huge pressure with an awful lineout call/throw which sees the ball fly over everyone and into England hands. Slade angles a kick to the corner that Freeman reaches and throws a cheeky one handed catflap pass to Furbank who walks in.
Smith misses the conversion
52 mins. The phases from Japan don’t really go anywhere and a frustrated McCurran puts up an aimless chip that Furbank simply marks and then punts it clear. Japan will the ball back on the halfway line.
50 mins. Brace yourselves.. JAPAN HAVE WON A SCRUM PENALTY!
Will Stuart started going backwards and didn’t really stop, which caused new hooker Cowan-Dickie to pop up. Japan have won their lienout and are in the English 22.
46 mins. When Japan do have the ball, which is admittedly not much, they are finding it easy to get around the England defence. The latest has them bravely firing it through fast hands to Osada and he’s around Sleightholme and running free towards Furbank. The final pass is not quite there, but it’s dangerous stuff.
44 mins. Back come Japan with some ridiculously fast ruck speed that is making England work hard in defence. The start to get some impact from the runners, particularly centre Fifita and the home side concede a penalty at the ruck.
This gives a promising lineout position to Japan, but Itoje is up in the air to steal it.
42 mins. As in the first half, Japan open with a period of possession. They are busy but struggling for any go forward with their runner. They eventually dab the ball into the corner near the line, but England defence does enough to win the ball back and clear.
Second half!
England receive the kick off and promptly boot it out on the full from outside the 22.
England find themselves in a situation where they can score at will, which makes for a performance where you try to find interest in specifics. For example, we are seeing some composure when the line is there to cross, decent set-piece drills and some comfort in phased attack. But, there is also evidence of continued defensive issues in the way Riley waltzed through a gap in the lead up to Japan’s only score.
If Japan can keep this below a fifty point gap then they should go home happy. It’s tough ask, though.
Half Time!
PEEEEEEEEP! The ball is spilled forward and a predictable half is over.
39 mins. A Japanse attack is halted when Faulua Makisi is pinged for a neck roll.
TRY! England 35 – 7 Japan (Ollie Sleightolme)
37 mins. Lawrence has a bumping run midfield and offloads to Stuart who fires a delightful long pass on the run for Cunningham-South to feed Sleightholme. Seeing the cover coming across the winger prods a grubber in-goal that he chases and dives on.
Smith strikes a lovely conversion from out wide.
TRY! England 28 – 7 Japan (Naoto Saito)
34 mins. Hello! From their own half Japan work it right via Riley who flies through a gap created by the England defensive rush. Once they are in behind he pops to Saito on a support line to race over and score.
The captain dusts himself off and converts his own try.
What is interesting is that the catch and drive maul has been notably absent from England’s Autumn campaign so far, yet they’ve unleashed it here like firing up a restored traction engine. Arguably, they could’ve done with it when trying all the fanciness in other weeks.
TRY! England 28 – 0 Japan (Jamie George)
30 mins. The issue for Japan is that a knock-on means a scrum, and a scrum means a penalty against the visitors as soon as England apply the pressure and splinter their pack.
Another catch and drive from the lineout allow George to double his try tally.
28 mins. The throw is tipped off the top and the England attack go all hands to the right in two phases to Freeman who swan dives over to ground it one-handed.
However, on review the TMO has spotted a little fumble forward from Van Poortvliet at the ruck before the ball went wide to Freeman. NO TRY!
26 mins. McCurran spills his attempt to field a van Poortvliet box kick under very little pressure. This given England a scrum on halfway and they march Japan backwards like a wheelie bin full of regret to win a penalty. It’s kicked to the corner once more.
TRY! England 21 – 0 Japan (Jamie George)
23 mins. Two penalties given away from Japan in defence hand a 5m lineout to England. It’s a simple catch and drive for Jamie George to fall forward over the line from the back of the mail for another try.
Smith extends the lead with the conversion.
20 mins. Some respite for Japan as an England knock-on leads to a scrum that takes a few minutes to complete. Saito gets it away from the base quickly under pressure, but all it achieves is more exit drills from their own territory and another English attack incoming.
18 mins. Like late period Napoleon, Japan continue to have a territorial nightmare, pinned down and booting clear from their own line almost permanently. All this does is to repeatedly give England an attacking platform from at least midway in the Japanese half.
15 mins. Underhill injured himself in the midst of scoring and is replaced by Chandler Cunningham-South.
On replay, he clearly dropped that ball over the line it seems, but no matter as the ref has allowed it and moved us on.
TRY! England 14 – 0 Japan (Sam Underhill)
14 mins. A penalty for the home side is despatched to the corner. The lineout is won with very little fuss and two phases later Underhill puts his head down and forces over from a metre out to ground it one-handed.
Converted by Smith.
11 mins. This will be a difficult enough afternoon for Japan without losing their own lineout, like they did here on halfway. Smith kicks the ball behind them once more and the ball is cleared to touch not far up the field.
Here come England again.
TRY! England 7 – 0 Japan (Ben Earl)
9 mins. The first bit of shape from England has Slade firing a kick in the left corner over the head of Osada, the ball is cleared to touch, but it simply invites the home side back at them. Smith calls a pattern off the lineout via an angled Lawrence run who finds Earl to go over under the posts. A very neat and tidy try.
Smith adds two.
6 mins. England snaffle some possession, but it’s lost by Earl and this gives a flash of space to Japan, who look left via a kick to Naikabula but his attempt to volley forward around halfway screws into touch.
The home side could be letting Japan blow themselves out a bit before putting their foot down, but it’s been mostly the Blossoms thus far.
MISSED PENALTY! England 0 – 0 Japan (Naoto Saito)
4 mins. More poor discipline from England as Earl is caught not rolling away at a ruck forty metres out. The Japan captain fancies it but he pulls the attempt at the posts left.
2 mins. Japan settle in to their familiar fast-paced handling game, which George Martin is too keen to try to prevent and gives penalty away. McCurran misses touch with his kick, with the return kick from England too deep and shepherded dead by Matsunaga.
Kick Off!
Ref Craig Evans blasts on his whistle and Marcus Smith boots us underway
The teams are out in the dusky early evening light, music blasting and lights flashing before we settle in for the anthems.
Pre match reading
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Teams
First choice all over the park for England of players who are available. Steve Borthwick wants a proper win here.
Japan are without Warner Dearns, who is banned for four matches. There’s also no Harumichi Tatekawa so Nik McCurran comes in at stand-off.
England: 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie George (captain), 3 Will Stuart; 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Martin; 6 Tom Curry, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Ben Earl; 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 10 Marcus Smith; 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 12 Henry Slade, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 14 Tommy Freeman; 15 George Furbank.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South; 21 Harry Randall, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Tom Roebuck.
Japan: 1 Takato Okabe, 2 Mamoru Harada, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi; 4 Sanaila Waqa, 5 Epineri Uluiviti; 6 Kanji Shimokawa, 7 Kazuki Himeno, 8 Faulua Makisi; 9 Naoto Saito (captain), 10 Nicholas McCurran; 11 Jone Naikabula, 12 Siosaia Fifita, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Tomoki Osada; 15 Takuro Matsunaga.
Replacements: 16 Seunghyuk Lee, 17 Yukio Morikawa, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Daichi Akiyama, 20 Tevita Tatafu, 21 Ben Gunter; 22 Shinobu Fujiwara, 23 Yusuke Kajimura.
Preamble
So we reach the final chapter of England’s current season of mists and mellow fruitlessness. An Autumn of testing themselves against the best of the southern hemisphere – plus Australia – and coming up short. Cue many pained dissections and death notices about the state of the game its birthplace, all of which are overstated.
Steve Borthwick’s team have had a tough little run of fixtures and have lost them narrowly, the team is broadly settled, the attacking gameplan is maturing and a new defensive system is bedding in. They should have won against Australia, probably, but this is no reason to go into full meltdown. Things are broadly fine and will continue to be so.
That said, it is helpful that they can sign-off this run of matches playing Japan at home with the clear probability of a comfortable win this brings; hence Borthwick has gone with a fully loaded squad for the match. But a decent and convincing win it must be against the returning Eddie Jones’s charges. A creaking November victory over the Brave Blossoms in 2018 during Jones’s England tenure increased the mutterings about his suitability for the job and England’s current man in charge will be keen to avoid yet another “explain yourself!” post-match interview to head into the long winter gap prior to the Six Nations.