France outclass plucky Japan
MATCH REPORT: France beat Japan 42-15 on Saturday to wrap up their Nations Championship southern hemisphere series with a comfortable win in humid Tokyo.
France scored six tries against a Japan side that never gave in but were ultimately outclassed by the Six Nations champions.
The result meant France finished their three games with wins over Australia and Japan and a loss to New Zealand, while Japan beat Italy and lost to both Ireland and France.
The game kicked off in 28 degree-Celsius heat and high humidity in front of more than 50,000 fans at Japan’s National Stadium, although the forecast rain did not arrive.
Matthieu Jalibert and Maxime Lamothe scored two tries each for France, with Alexandre Roumat and captain Maxime Lucu bagging the others.
Kippei Ishida and Sojiro Otsuka scored in the first half for Japan.
Both teams started with completely different front rows from their previous games, in anticipation of a fierce physical contest.
France scored the opening try in the second minute after winning a line-out and rumbling over the Japan line for Lamothe to touch down.
France were hit with a setback when flanker Lenni Nouchi and lock Florian Verhaege both had to leave the field for concussion checks.
Japan took advantage by scoring a penalty and a try in quick succession, Ishida turning on the afterburners to streak home in the 15th minute.
France hit back with a Jalibert try, with Japan lock Harry Hockings sin-binned in the immediate aftermath.
Roumat, who was making his first international appearance since February 2025, added another try four minutes later to put France in firm control.
Lucu dashed over for France’s fourth of the game, but Japan gave themselves a lifeline when Otsuka scored a try four minutes before halftime.
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Jalibert scored once more two minutes into the second half, before Lamothe also got his second of the game less than 10 minutes later.
Jalibert was sin-binned midway through the second half for an illegal tackle.
The TMO (television match official) denied Japan another try when substitute Tiennan Costly crossed the line just moments after coming on.
Scorers:
For Japan:
Tries: Ishida, Otsuka
Con: Matsunaga
Pen: Matsunaga
For France:
Tries: Lamothe, Jalibert 2, Roumat 2, Lucu
Cons: Lucu 5, Jalibert
Yellow cards: Harry Hockings (Japan, 17′), Matthieu Jalibert (France, 57′), Marko Gazzotti (France, 76′)
Teams:
Japan: 15 Takuro Matsunaga, 14 Kazuma Ueda, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Samisoni Tua, 11 Kippei Ishida, 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 9 Naoto Saito, 8 Jack Cornelsen, 7 Ben Gunter, 6 Esei Haangana, 5 Warner Dearns (captain), 4 Harry Hockings, 3 Keijiro Tamefusa, 2 Hayate Era, 1 Sojiro Otsuka
Replacements: 16 Kenji Sato, 17 Takato Okabe, 18 Izi Sword, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Tiennan Costley, 22 Taira Main, 23 Shunsuke Uenobo
France: 15 Matthieu Jalibert, 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Aaron Grandidier-Nkakang, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Maxime Lucu (captain), 8 Alexandre Roumat, 7 Marko Gazzotti, 6 Lenni Nouchi, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 4 Florian Verhaeghe, 3 Regis Montagne, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 1 Jefferson Poirot.
Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sipili Falatea, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Killian Tixeront, 22 Paul Graou, 23 Kalvin Gourgues
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Andrea Piardi (Italy), Luke Pearce (England)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)
