Brave Blossoms Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025 Squad and New Mantra

The JRFU and Head Coach Eddie Jones announced the Brave Blossoms squad that will take on the Māori All Blacks and Wales in two tests in June and July 2025 for the Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025. The 37-member squad again includes several surprises and some omissions based on recent Japan Rugby League One form.
The squad features 20 forwards and 17 backs who will enter a training camp in Miyazaki from Monday, June 16, ahead of the three-match Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025 fixtures.
The squad does include some experienced test veterans, but Eddie Jones has continued his policy of bringing through Japan’s next generation of players by announcing the inclusion of 17 uncapped players. There are an additional eight players with just ten caps or fewer in a squad that averages 26 years old.
Michael Lietch, who played every game of his championship-winning JRLO side Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo and was the Division 1 leading tackler, is in the squad and will look to extend on his 87-test caps. The combined test tally of the other 19 forwards is 119 caps, with Werner Deans the next most experienced with 21.
The pack’s nine front rowers have a total of 33 caps, but six of those selected are uncapped. Takahito Okabe (Yokohama Canon Eagles) and Opeti Helu (Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay) were unavailable due to injuries.
Among the backs, Toulouse-based scrumhalf Naoto Saito is in the squad, as well as Dylan Riley, Seungsin Lee, and Siosaia Fifita, who bring experience to a backline that includes 7 uncapped players.
There are some surprising omissions from the form they showed in the past season in Japan. Kyohei Yamasawa (Saitama Wild Knights) was arguably the best Japanese fly-half in terms of stats, topping the points charts and lauded by his coach Robbie Deans, and Shuntaro Kitamura (the second highest try scorer this past season at Shizuoka Blue Revs) are among several Japanese players who can count themselves unlucky to have missed out.
Among the debutantes is Australian-born Sam Greene (Shizuoka Blue Revs), who will be 33 by the time of the World Cup in Australia. He is one of 15 foreign-born players in the squad, and the former Australia A Schoolboy previously was with the Queensland Reds but has been based in Japan since 2016.
As has been Jones’s trademark as head coach in Japan, he has called up an uncapped university player, Jingo Takenoshita, a third-year student at Meiji University. The 21-year-old toured with the U23 squad to Australia earlier this year, in which he started all three matches at fullback. He is another product of Hotoku Gakuen High School.
Jones said of the young talent, “His ambition is wonderful. His movement, even when he doesn’t have the ball, is good.”
Two of the backs were with the Japan Sevens team at the Paris Olympics in 2024 – Kippei Ishida and Kazuma Ueda. Ishida also played in the 2020 Olympics and was the Men’s captain in Paris.
It should be noted that a list of 13 players is unavailable due to injuries, including some you would assume would have made the squad: Himeno Kazuki, Nagata Tomoki, Jone Naikabula, Ruan Botha, Tachikawa Masamichi, Kida Haruto, Nezuka Koga, Saumaki Amanaki, Tiennan Costley, Ikeda Yuki and Yazaki Yoshitaka*.
*Yazaki, who was the breakout selection under Jones in 2024 at 19 years old at the time, was the youngest member of the team and played at Waseda University (and is a Toin Gakuen High School alumnus). He was the first-choice full-back for six tests in 2024 but missed the end of the test season due to his university rugby commitments.
In a very Japanese-specific situation, there was an agreement between the national team and the university that his participation would only be before the university season begins. It is unclear what his injury status is.
JRLO Composition of Brave Blossoms Squad – July 2025 Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025
- Kubota Spears Funabashi TOKYO-BAY – 6
- TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO – 5
- TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH – 5
- SAITAMA Panasonic WILD KNIGHTS – 4
- KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS – 3
- SHIZUOKA BlueRevs – 3
- RICOH BlackRams Tokyo – 3
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars – 2
- TOYOTA VERBLITZ – 2
- URAYASU D-Rocks – 1
- YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES – 1
New Year, New Mantra – Chosoku As One
The head coach also unveiled the Brave Blossom’s team mantra for 2025 – ‘Chosoku As One’, which builds on the team’s earlier concept of Chosoku Rugby or super-fast rugby.
The concept is meant to be embodied across Japan’s elite levels, said the JRFU, but “will also be the guiding vision across all rugby in Japan, both in terms of playing style, but also within coaching, management and wider off-field activities.”
Japan is recognised internationally for its high-tempo style and high-skill application of rugby’s fundamentals of catch-pass that form the basis of its quick ball movement and positive attacking style. However, Jones wants to take the concept even further, to stretch and press the fabric of chosoku rugby into every facet of the Japanese game, added the JRFU.

Photo Credit – JRFU
Jones said at a press conference in Tokyo, “For Japan to rise again, to have another peak of success, we need to work together across high school, university and into League One. We need to produce the strongest team that plays rugby that keeps fans on the edges of their seats. Particularly in terms of our attack, we must take advantage of the opportunities we create and play on top of the opposition, and then conversely, when we don’t have the ball, we need a much higher work rate in our defence.”
The Brave Blossoms Head Coach added of the results, “Of course, we want to win, but I think there is a greater duty to Japanese rugby here. In our rugby ecosystem, we need to work as one and maximise the resources we’ve got. Maximise every talented high school and university player and make sure they’ve got the opportunity to play. In that way, we can maximise the talent coming through to the national team. One thing I do know, having come back to Japan, is that there’s enough talent.”
In this video released by JRFU (not all subtitles in English), Eddie Jones talks of needing a rugby revolution in Japan and changing the way they play. “I am impressed by their potential, but now we need to convert that potential for them into a higher standard of consistent play.”
Lipovitan D Challenge Cup 2025 Brave Blossoms & Japan XV Fixtures
We have been seeing a rise of frustration among fans in Japan at the team’s results over the past 18 months, which does not read well well the side has played fellow tier-one opposition, and the Welsh series should be a prime opportunity to get positive results against a team that has not won a test since Georgia in the World Cup back in October 2023 (17 consecutive tests).
A Japan XV will take on the Māori All Blacks on Saturday, June 28, at Chichibunomiya in Tokyo. which follows their three wins over the visiting New Zealand Universities and Hong Kong China teams over the past month.
At the squad selection announcement in Tokyo on June 12th, it was suggested that the team that will play against the Maori All Blacks will include players who had little playing time during the season and some members who were not included in the squad but participated in the Sugadaira training camp and JAPAN XV activities.
Then Wales will be on Japanese soil for a two-match series, with the tests taking place in Kitakyushu’s Mikuni World Stadium on July 5, and in Kobe’s Noevir Stadium on July 12.
The Brave Blossoms’ defensive record in 2024 does not make for good reading. They conceded 52 points against England in June, 42 points against Italy in July, and 64 points against the All Blacks, as well as 52 points and 59 points against France and England on the end-of-year tour.
Eddie Jones addressed this, commenting, “Whether you look at high school, university, or League One rugby in Japan, there are many teams that emphasise attack. Panasonic Wild Knights is the only team that specialises in defence. Other teams have a strong attacking mindset. The players come from there (to the Japanese national team), so I think it’s inevitable that they have a strong attacking mindset….the Japanese national team’s identity is based on powerful attacks.”
He said they will bolster the defensive approach, which is certainly needed at international test-level rugby.
“I want them to focus more on defence, understand its importance, and what kind of defence do I want them to have? They have no choice but to tackle, get up quickly, and keep filling the space. To achieve this, I’m trying to work on the idea of ”paying the price.” I’m going to quantify good plays, make them visible, and make them easier to understand.”
An example was made of the U23 team in Australia, in which colour banding and data were shown to the players to indicate where improvements were needed, and it resulted in an improved mindset and performances. Jones added, “Through this approach, the players have gained a better understanding of what role they should play and how motivated they should be in defence.”
The U23 team conceded 121 points in the three matches and lost two of the three tour games. There is currently no defensive coach in the national team setup following the vacancy left by David Kidwell last season, and they have not filled the position.

Photo Credit – JRFU
Victor Matfield is listed as a Technical Advisor until the end of June for the Brave Blossoms, while former England international Piers Francis, who plays for the third division JRLO Kurita Water Gush, temporarily joins the Japan coaching staff as an assistant until the end of June.
The Brave Blossoms next take part in the Pacific Nations Cup, in which they were runners-up in 2024. In pool play, they host Canada on Saturday, 30 August at Sendai Yurtec Stadium before heading the the USA to face the Eagles on Saturday, 6 September at Heart Health Park, Sacramento, California. This will be followed by the semifinals and playoff matches in the US in September.
At the end of the year, they will head to Europe to play Ireland (Saturday 8 November), Wales (Saturday 15 November), and Georgia (Saturday 22 November).
Japan Rugby News 2025
- JAPAN XV 2025 Squad Announced for NZU, HKCR and Māori All Blacks Fixtures.
- Japan Sakura Fifteens and Brave Blossoms 2025 Domestic Fixtures Announced.
- Brave Blossoms Lipovitan D Tour 2025 Fixtures In Europe Confirmed.
- Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 Pools Confirmed – Japan in Pool C.