Wales fend off Japan fightback to end painful losing run
Wales held on to end their 18-match losing Test run with a hard-fought 31-22 victory over Japan.
Played under the closed roof of the Noevir Stadium, Wales scored three first-half tries, with Josh Adams opening the scoring and Kieran Hardy going over twice after Lee Seung-sin’s penalty, but Japan struck on the stroke of half-time through Shuhei Takeuchi.
Although Dan Edwards’ penalty extended Wales’ lead, they slipped into trouble as two tries in quick succession from Warner Dearns and Dylan Riley brought Japan back into the game.
However, Edwards crossed with five minutes remaining to seal a much-needed victory for Wales and snap a lengthy losing run to secure a first Test win since beating Georgia at the 2023 World Cup.
Matt Sherratt made four changes from the side beaten by The Brave Blossoms last weekend, with Freddie Thomas, Archie Griffin and Aaron Wainwright lining up alongside Edwards, who was making his first start.
Wales scored the opening try when Blair Murray squeezed through a gap and charged down the pitch before offloading to Adams to cross. Edwards added the conversion.
Hauled down
Japan had a great opportunity when Ichigo Nakakusu eased through the Welsh defence and looked to have played in Michael Leitch, but the flanker was hauled down as Wales recovered.
A mistake allowed Wainwright to pounce on a loose ball before launching a tidy grubber kick up-field for Adams. The winger reached the ball on the try-line but was unable to get a firm grip to ground it and it bounced out of play.
Japan earned their first points of the game from Lee’s penalty kick, but the visitors extended their advantage shortly afterwards from a line-out where the rolling maul reached the edge of the try-line and Hardy was able to reach over and touch down, with Edwards converting.
Faulua Makisi was sent to the sin bin and Wales soon took advantage of their extra man when a great switch in play allowed Adams to cut in from the left and break forward before passing into Hardy, who dived over, with Edwards scoring from the tee.
Japan pulled a try back just before half-time when Takeuchi surged over the line and Lee converted.
Early blow
Wales suffered an early blow after the break when Nicky Smith was forced off through injury. Gareth Thomas came on, and although Japan started well, it was Wales who struck next as Edwards kicked a penalty.
The hosts then enjoyed a superb build-up of phases which resulted in Dearns powering over the line and following a TMO review the try stood, but Lee’s conversion flew wide of the posts.
Wales suddenly found themselves in trouble as Riley latched onto a sloppy pass and sprinted up the centre of the pitch to cross underneath the posts. Lee converted to reduce the gap to two points.
A cagey end to the game followed, but the visitors piled forward with five minutes to play and a quick move to the left allowed Edwards to cross before converting his own effort to wrap up the win.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Brilliant result. Amazing news. Let’s go Wales. Upwards and onwards.
Congratulations to the players for a victory under unacceptable circumstances. Not the temperature as the roof was closed, but the WRU hierarchy and their record 18 match losing run, which is what they’ll be remembered for whenever they go home to England.
The troubles with the national team ho back to when Gatland was in charge the first rime. Underinvestment in academies and cancelling the Wales A team are to name but 2.
Next you’ll be balmihg the hard left for the national teams problems.
For your information the Wales A team has not played for nearly a quarter of a century, rightly redundant as we streamlined to 4 pro teams that helped bring our 4th Golden Era from 2005 to 2019. Much of the investment in the academies was EU money, so yes Brexit and other political factors are a huge factor as elite sport is governed by money. Ireland won one Grand Slam over 3 centuries, then they got their politics and economy right so they won 3 in 15 years. Despite some Welsh fans wanting to believe it’s all about blaming one… Read more »
Congratulations to the team for finally getting a win and actually scoring in the final quarter of a game this year. A win is a win and it must be a huge relief to get that monkey off their back. I’m really happy for the his involved today. I just hope the head coach/director of rugby role is filled soon and with someone who a long term fix. We need route and branch reform of skills development if Welsh rugby is going to compete again. We lack the size other teams can bring to the field. So we need to… Read more »
Some good points in the your last paragraph, but it’s a sad reality that retired players now ‘do a Jiffy’ and get easy money sitting on their backsides criticising those who are having a go, which is also a sad reflection of our current failing society.
A win is a win, I suppose. But duw did we make our life difficult for ourselves? At one point I thought, here we go again. Yes, we won the game but the problems still persist. This is merely papering over the cracks. No permanent head coach as yet. Ongoing player exodus. Regions in turmoil. WRU still full of dinosaurs. The last quarter thought we were aping the first test play for play. Too close for comfort. I know it was hot and confidence rock bottom but still again made simple schoolboy errors throwing away all the hard work done.… Read more »
Hardy gifted Japan 2 scores and nearly butchered one of the tries he’d scored. He was too ponderous at times often making to wrong choice at ruck time.
Maybe it ws the heat or maybe he just isn’t international standard. Maybe a bit of both. But Wales were lucky to win today.