The Japan Rugby Football Union has announced its U20 Japan team to face the New Zealand Students’ National Team (NZU) on Friday, 16 May at Oita Sports Park.
The New Zealand University (NZU) representative rugby side will be on tour in Japan in May 2025, and there were three fixtures have been announced against Japan U20, Japan U23, and Japan XV. However, in mid-May, it looks like the U23 match has been rescheduled to a Japan XV fixture (so they will play each other twice).
Japan Rugby Football Union previously confirmed that all three matches are free to attend, and the NZU squad is expected to feature future Super Rugby Pacific stars and potential All Blacks.
As part of the Japanese U20 preparations, they played matches against JRLO sides Red Hurricanes Osaka, Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, and Kobelco Kobe Steelers (losing all three). The final squad from JRFU assembled in camp on May 11.
The match between the NZU and Japan U20s has a local time kick-off of 16:00.
Result: Japan U20 52-45 NZU
You can watch the match highlights below:
Japan U20 National Squad vs New Zealand Students (NZU)
Many of the squad members were part of the team that won the 2024 Asia Rugby Emirates U19 Men’s Championship. Rikuto Nakaya captains the side at number 8.
You can see more on the JRFU U20 squad announcement here.
New Zealand Students (NZU) Squad vs Japan U20
How To Watch Japan U20 vs NZ Students 2025
The JRFU indicated that the match will be available only via J SPORTS On Demand (LIVE streaming).
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