Japan give nervy Wallabies a scare ahead of Bok showdown

MATCH REPORT: Australia survived a second-half comeback to beat Eddie Jones’s Japan 19-15 in a wet Tokyo and get their five-Test tour off to a winning start on Saturday.

The Wallabies held on after a nerve-jangling finale to set themselves up for their trip to Europe, where they will face England, Italy, Ireland and France on successive weekends.

Nick Champion de Crespigny, captaining the team in just his third international appearance, scored Australia’s first try before Josh Flook added another before half-time.

Japan hit back after the break through Shuhei Takeuchi before Carlo Tizzano scored another try for the visitors.

Australia-born Japan flank Ben Gunter brought the home side within four points midway through the second half but the Wallabies escaped with the win.

Australia fielded a new-look team with 13 changes from the side that lost to New Zealand earlier this month.

Both teams were forced into early changes, with Australia’s Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Japan’s Shogo Nakano leaving the field within the first 10 minutes.

Australia took the lead minutes later when Champion de Crespigny pounced for a try after a penalty dangerously close to the Japan line.

A yellow card for Japan’s Charlie Lawrence left the home side temporarily short-handed and there was more injury woe for Australia when Josh Canham went off following a heavy hit.

Seungsin Lee kicked a penalty to get Japan on the board but Australia scored their second try minutes later.

A nicely worked move sent Andrew Kellaway running through the Japan defence, and he fed Flook to canter over the line.

Japan had Takeuchi yellow-carded and Australia had a try ruled out by the television match official after Tizzano had gone over late in the first half.

Japan looked livelier in the second half and Takeuchi scored their first try in the 52nd minute after a period of pressure.

Australia hit back five minutes later when Tizzano rumbled over for their third try.

Japan scored again through Gunter to bring them within one try of their first win over Australia, but it was not to be.

Aidan Ross came off the bench to become the fifth man to represent both Australia and New Zealand in Test matches.

Japan will face the Springboks at Wembley Stadium in London next weekend.

The scorers:

For Japan:
Tries: Takeuchi, Gunter
Con: Lee
Pen: Lee

For Australia:
Tries: Champion de Crespigny, Flook, Tizzano
Cons: Edmed 2

Yellow cards: Charlie Lawrence (Japan, 19′); Shuhei Takeuchi (Japan, 39′)

Teams:

Japan: 15 Yoshitaka Yazaki, 14 Kippei Ishida, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Shogo Nakano, 11 Tomoki Osada, 10 Lee Seung-sin, 9 Shinobu Fujiwara, 8 Michael Leitch, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 6 Ben Gunter, 5 Warner Dearns, 4 Jack Cornelsen, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 2 Hayate Era, 1 Kenta Kobayashi.
Replacements: 16 Kenji Sato, 17 Ryosuke Iwaihara, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Tyler Paul, 20 Tiennan Costley, 21 Kenta Fukuda, 22 Charlie Lawrence, 23 Sam Greene.

Australia: 15 Andrew Kellaway, 14 Corey Toole, 13 Josh Flook, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Tane Edmed, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Rob Valetini, 7 Carlo Tizzano, 6 Nick Champion de Crespigny (captain), 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 4 Jeremy Williams, 3 Zane Nonggorr, 2 Josh Nasser, 1 Angus Bell.
Resplacements: 16 Billy Pollard, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Tom Robertson, 19 Josh Canham, 20 Harry Wilson, 21 Ryan Lonergan, 22 Hamish Stewart, 23 Filipo Daugunu.

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Angus Mabey (New Zealand), Morgan White (Hong Kong)
TMO: Richard Kelly (New Zealand)