Brave Blossoms Blow Chances Against Wales in Nations Championship

rugbyasia247 Posted On November 8, 2026

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Brave Blossoms Blow Chances Against Wales in Nations Championship

The Brave Blossoms lost to Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, 28-21, in the first of three challenging Nations Championship 2026 fixtures in November before the finals weekend, but the manner of the loss was frustrating as the game echoed many of the year’s recurring themes for the Japanese.

Photo Credit: JRFU

The feeling that it was a match they could have won in front of a crowd of 52,425 was echoed by most of the Japanese players and the Head Coach.

Eddie Jones said via the JRFU: “First of all, I want to congratulate Wales. It was a fantastic victory for them. As for our team, I am really proud of the players’ efforts. We had a particularly young squad this time, with two university students and one player making his test match debut. So there were times when it would have been understandable if they had given up, but I think they fought tenaciously to the end.

When we got inside the 22-meter line, it would have been fine if we hadn’t been able to convert those opportunities into points, but that was the turning point of the game. We had three scoring opportunities, but we couldn’t capitalise on them, while Wales made the most of them, and their scoring rate per entry inside the 22-meter line was higher than ours. That’s what led to the difference in the score.”

Wales took the lead within 5 minutes and managed to maintain a lead or level for most of the game – despite Japan having superior territory and possession, especially in the second half. The Japanese twice came back to level the score but gave away some easy points too.

The Brave Blossoms once again failed to convert that into points, which is where it matters most. They also lost a lot of turnover ball at the rucks. The Welsh led 21-14 at the break and kept their noses ahead.

It was just a fourth victory in 13 Tests since Steve Tandy took charge as head coach of Wales last year – three of those are against Japan.

The Welsh wings scored three of their four tries, with Louis Rees-Zammit also claiming the Player of the Match award. Tomos Adams scored a brace.

Japan Captain Warner Dearns, who once again was one of his team’s try scorers, added, “We made a lot of mistakes during our attacks, and there were many times when we couldn’t score a try even after getting into the 22-meter line. We came so close to winning the game, but I think you can’t win a match unless you score a try.”

The positives were the set piece, especially the lineout, which stole a lot of Welsh ball (six steals), and the return of prop Opeti Helu to Test rugby. He made a big difference when he entered the contest at scrum time but also had a superb hand in the third try, which was excellent by the team.

Photo Credit: JRFU – Opeti Helu

Dearns said, “In the lineouts, I, Hockings, and Cornelsen all practised very hard, and I’m glad we were able to make use of our height advantage, but that didn’t translate into results. We need to attack more after stealing the ball and put more pressure on the opponent. In terms of defence, we need to improve our tackle success rate. We will work hard to correct today’s issues in practice for next week’s match against England and go for the win.”

On the debut of flyhalf Riku Kitahara, Eddie Jones said, “Making your Test debut at Millennium Stadium is a big challenge. He’s only been in the squad for two weeks, but he did a really good job.”

Kitahara said himself, “My strengths are ball carrying and kicking, and I think I was able to do that, but in terms of execution, I think there are still areas where I fell short, so I want to work on correcting those and use that to my advantage next time.”

Captain Warner Dearns - Brave Blossoms Blow Chances Against Wales in Nations Championship

Photo Credit: JRFU – Warner Dearns

There are, however, mounting reports among the Japanese media of players who have turned down the opportunity to play on this tour, opting to stay with their clubs. If that is true, is it hinting at some discontent growing in the camp a year out from the Rugby World Cup in Australia?

The team take on England next week. Ben Gunter, yet again getting through a mountain of work and scoring a try, explained, “The campaign has just begun, so we will adjust and grow from here. We will learn from today’s match and work hard to improve our precision and execution so that we can deliver a good result to the fans in Japan.”

Japan Points Scorers: