Match Preview – Japan vs Kazakhstan AREWC 2025

The Asia Rugby Emirates Women’s Championship (AREWC) 2025 kicks off with the defending champions and hosts Japan Sakura 15s facing Kazakhstan on Thursday, May 15, 2025. at JAPAN BASE. The Japanese are chasing a 7th straight title.

Feature Photo Credit – Asia Rugby

Updated 15th May

The Japan Rugby Football Union announced the squad to play the Kazakhs the day before the match, and as expected, it is a new-look side as Head Coach Lesley McKenzie rotates players in preparation for the Rugby World Cup 2025.

The Japanese (ranked 11th) won the tournament in 2024, which was played in Hong Kong, and beat the same opposition who are currently ranked 18th in the world comfortably. The title win for the Japanese in last year’s championship meant they have overtaken Kazakhstan for the most titles.

In the matchday squad to play Kazakhstan, Japan are handing potential debuts to five players: Arisa Nishi and Sakura Mizutani (Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix), Miho Matsunaga, Yoshida Nami, and Haruna Kojima (all Yokohama TKM).  There are seven players in the squad with two caps or fewer, and the most capped player is Ayasa Otsuka at flyhalf, who will earn her 32nd cap. Full-back Sora Nishimura is the only player to retain her place from the team that started the 39-33 win against the USA.

Sakurako Korai, who starts in the #6 jersey, will be the captain. She is a 4th-year student at Nippon Sport Science University, and the squad has only three players in the starting line-up aged over 25.  The JRFU confirmed that the team in which played the USA featured an average of 21 test caps per player; for this test, the average is eight caps per player.

The Japanese made history by beating the USA Eagles for the first time in April 2025, away from home. They will be heading to RWC 2025 but have a number of tests confirmed in 2025, including against Spain and Italy, after the Asian championship, and they have been in camp for several months.

It is difficult to see how visiting Kazakhstan can win the match, even if the Japanese are not fielding a full-strength team, mainly due to their lack of international tests. They have not played a test since the AREWC in 2024, in which they lost both matches, and the Japanese beat them 64-0 in the 2024 fixture and 72-0 in 2023.

The last time the Kazhaks beat the Sakura 15s was in May 2015, and worryingly for them, they have lost four out of their past 5 internationals, and in all four of those losses, they failed to score a point while conceding 313 points! Kazakhstan have now played 170 minutes (and a decade) without scoring a point against Japan.

Fabian Juries, the former South African sevens player, took over the coaching role in 2024 for the Kazakhstan 7s and 15s teams, and the team did play and beat international debutants Georgia 47-5 in one of two training matches, which formed part of a two-week training camp in Kutaisi in April.

Kazakhstan has selected props Yelena Yurova and Natalya Kamendrovskaya, second-row Symbat Zhamankulova, centre Veronika Stepanyuga and winger Oxana Shadrina, who all played in Kazakhstan’s last RWC appearance.

Match Permutations –  Japan Sakura 15 vs Kazakhstan

• Japan cannot improve its World Rugby ranking if they win.
• If Japan loses, they will relinquish 11th place to South Africa, and Kazakhstan will move above Hong Kong China into 17th place.

Result: Japan 90-0 Kazakhstan

You can read our match review and see the highlights here.

Photo Credit – Asia Rugby – Japan beat Kazakhstan 64-0 in the AREWC 2024

Matchday Squad – Kazakhstan vs Japan AREWC 2025

More of the Kazakhstan team can be seen here.

1 Elena Yurova
2 Ksenia Kim
3 Natalia Kamendlovskaya
4 Yuliya Alenikava
5 Smbat Jamakkulova
6 Anna Chebotaru
7 Maria Grishina
8 Angelica Pichugina
9 Alena Drovaskaya
10 Ekaterina Savina
11 Amina Turgenova
12 Anna Melnikova
13 Veronica Stepanyuga
14 Aksana Shadrina
15 Tatiana Kruchinkina

16 Darya Simakova
17 Darya Tykhacheva
18 Irina Balabina
19 Victoria Kuznetsova
20 Svetlana Marezina
21 Ayaurum Bakitpek
22 Amina Sharip
23 Angelina Kuznetseva