Japan Sakura Fifteen vs Italy Preview – August 9 2025

rugbyasia247 Posted On August 8, 2025

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Japan Sakura 15 vs Italy Preview - August 9 2025

The Sakura Fifteen face Italy in a one-off test match on Saturday, August 9, at Stadio San Michele in Calvisano, which is their final Test before the Rugby World Cup 2025 gets underway.

This will be the third consecutive warm-up match against Italy in as many years, and Le Azzurre come into the fixture having beaten Scotland 34-29 at the end of July in their only Test since the Women’s Six Nations. In that tournament, they lost to England, France and Ireland, but beat Wales and Scotland.

The Japanese have won all five matches in 2025; they beat the USA in Los Angeles in April, and then defeated Kazakhstan and Hong Kong China during the Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship in Japan to retain the Championship, and most recently defeated Spain at home twice.

The Japanese women’s national XV side has faced Italy seven times, and each of the past two years in one-off tests ahead of the WXV2 tournament in both 2023 and 2024. To date, Italy has won five of those encounters with one draw and a sole Sakura XV win, which was in 2023 with a scoreline of 24–25 in the northern Italian city of Parma.

Japan Sakura Fifteen vs Italy Preview - August 9 2025

Photo Credit JRFU

Sakura Fifteen Head Coach Lesley McKenzie said via the JRFU previously, “We are familiar with Italy from previous years, but they will be making their own bid for great performances in England, so we expect them to be both a very tough task and to present some unfamiliar pictures for us…..they’ve shown some really pressurising rugby in their last few games. In addition to that, they’ve got an experienced, skilful squad with players who’ll be excited to be peaking right around this time. It should be exactly what we need, and I’m appreciative that we’ve developed this relationship with Italy.”

McKenzie confirmed her Sakura Fifteen side to face Italy in their one-off, Rugby World Cup warm-up and Iroha Nagata will captain from the openside flanker role, leading a team with an average of 24 tests caps per player.

Nagata who will earn her 40th cap, said, ‘Our final test match before the Rugby World Cup in England will be an opportunity for us to show the results of our training and demonstrate our growth. We will be looking to apply pressure in both attack and defence, to control the game and play for the win, while building momentum for the World Cup.”

Seina Saito starts at #8 and will earn her 50^th test cap – becoming the first ever Sakura Fifteen player to reach this milestone.

The Head Coach added, “Italy have been building really well through this year, and this is probably the strongest iteration of them that I have ever seen. They were deserved quarterfinalists at the last World Cup, and I think they will be in the hunt to improve on that this time.

Their wingers are world-class, and their halfback facilitates that, on the back of an athletic, skilled forward pack. This will be fantastic preparation for the challenges posed by our pool opposition. We always enjoy playing in Italy and it has been a really good week of preparation. I’m looking forward to seeing a strong test from them and a corresponding performance this weekend from the girls” said McKenzie of Italy.

In 2023, the Japan Rugby Football Union and the Italian Rugby Federation signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore “beneficial opportunities for the mutual development of their national teams, high-performance programmes, player pathways and local competitions”.

Photo Credit – JRFU

Italy have made eight personnel and two positional changes to their starting line-up from the victory over Scotland. Elisa Giordano captains the side from number eight, earning her 75th test cap.

Gaia Maris moves to tight-head with Silvia Turani and hooker Laura Gurioli coming in alongside her in the front row.

Sara Tounesi will play her 50th test for the Azzurre against Japan, and starts in the second row. At the same time, scrum-half Sofia Stefan gets closer to becoming Italy’s second female test centurion.

Alyssa D’Incà, who scored a hat-trick against Scotland, starts on the left wing, while Gaia Buso is set for a first test appearance since the 28-15 victory over Japan at WXV 2 2023.

Sara Cox (England) referees Italy v Japan.

Japan vs Italy Women XV Past Results: