Japan Sakura XVs Thrash Kazakhstan in Asia Rugby Women’s Championship 2025 Opener

The Japan Sakura XVs team easily defeated Kazakhstan in the opening fixture of the Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship 2025 on Thursday, May 15th, with a 90-0 win, which means the Kazakhs have not beaten or scored a single point against Japan in a decade.

Feature Photo Credit – JRFU / Asia Rugby

All of the championship’s matches are played at Japan BASE in Fukuoka, and the gap of the victory is a concern for the region and less so for Japan, who ran in 14 tries in the dominant win and were ahead 31-0 at halftime.

The first points were scored by centre Kanako Kobayashi in the 6th minute, and Japan’s leading points scorer in 2024, flyhalf Ayasa Otsuka (who was their most capped player in the matchday squad), added the extras in what was one-way traffic thereafter. 

Acting Head Coach Keita Imada saw his team, which included 5 players making their debut, as well as seven players in the squad with two caps or fewer and only three players older than 25, control the tempo, set piece, and physicality in addition to scoring some wonderful tries as the Cherry Blossoms ran riot.

You can see a full breakdown of the scorers and squads here.

First-time captain, Sakurako Korai, a 4th-year student at Nippon Sport Science University, scored a hat-trick in the match and said, “We moved faster than the opponent, attacked, defended, and positioned ourselves well. We continued to play with a strong impact and were able to do it at explosive speed.”

Photo Credit – JRFU / Asia Rugby

Speed was the keyword as Kazakhstan, who were poor and unlooked unfit, could not make the tackles or defend the pace at which the young Japanese side moved the ball wide and through them.

You could name any number from Japan who had slick hands and the ability to find the space. Some of the moves were intricate, but they found massive defensive holes, and the physicality was also there, notably from prop Miyo Machida and replacement second row Miho Matsunaga. Both Japanese centres were excellent and scored on the day.

For all of the dominance, Japan still made a lot of mistakes – and they were not as efficient as they would like at controlling the ball in rucks, had quite a few loose passes, and had some lineout issues too, with a few poor balls off the top to the scrum half.

Captain Sakurako Korai admitted as much, saying. “There were quite a few handling errors in the first half.”

Japan left plenty of points out there, which does not bode well for Hong Kong China, whom they face next in the final game of the championship.

Keita Imada (Acting Head Coach) said, “There were many great points in this match, but at the same time, we also found areas where we can improve, so we would like to grow even more as a team in preparation for the match against Hong Kong China.”

It is hard to find positives for Kazakhstan.  They played Georgia twice in uncapped matches in preparation, but were never in this game and never looked like scoring. They were slow in defence and attack, they were poor under pressure and had no release valve to kick them out of their own red zone.

Photo Credit – JRFU / Asia Rugby

This is only Kazakhstan’s 11th test since 2020, but they’ve failed to score in their last 5 test losses and conceded 403 points in those defeats. Kazakhstan did have 5 teenagers in the matchday squad, so the rebuilding has begun.

Captain of Kazakhstan, Natalia Kamendlovskaya, who was in the team when they went to RWC 2014, admitted they were outplayed in all departments, “We were overwhelmed by Japan’s energy and got tired towards the end.”

Kazakhstan will play HKCR on Tuesday in the 2nd game of the AREWC 2025 and will be looking to score points and a much-needed win, but face a foe who has found a way to beat them in recent seasons.

Thanks to additional quotes from Justrugby.jp

You can see match highlights from the Japan Sakura XVs vs Kazakhstan below:

Asian Rugby Women’s XVs News 2025

• Match Preview – Japan vs Kazakhstan AREWC 2025.
• HKCR Women 15s Head To Asia Rugby Women’s Championship 2025 With New-Look Coaching Team and A Debutante.
• Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship 2025 – Your Definitive Guide.
• Japan Sakura Fifteens and Brave Blossoms 2025 Domestic Fixtures Announced.