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Jones keeps changes minimal for Ireland challenge

TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Japan head coach Eddie Jones made three changes to the starting line-up that went down 7-61 against the Springboks at Wembley Stadium last week.

There’s a change at scrumhalf with Naoto Saito coming in for Shinobu Fujiwara, who will provide impact as a replacement.

Captain Michael Leitch drops down to the bench and is replaced by Faulua Makisi at No.8

Jack Cornelsen also drops to the bench at the expense of Tyler Paul, who falls out of the matchday squad and is replaced by Epineri Uluiviti at No.4 lock.

There are also three new replacement backs in Shinobu Fujiwara, Shinya Komura and Yuya Hirose.

Japan: 15 Yoshitaka Yazaki, 14 Kippei Ishida, 13 Dylan Riley (vice-captain), 12 Charlie Lawrence, 11 Tomoki Osada, 10 Seung-sin Lee (vice-captain), 9 Naoto Saito, 8 Faulua Makisi, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 6 Ben Gunter, 5 Warner Dearns (captain), 4 Epineri Uluiviti, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 2 Kenji Sato, 1 Kenta Kobayashi
Replacements: 16 Shodai Hirao, 17 Ryosuke Iwaihara, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Jack Cornelsen, 20 Micheal Leitch, 21 Shinobu Fujiwara, 22 Shinya Komura, 23 Yuya Hirose

Date: Saturday, October 8
Venue: AVIVA Stadium, Dublin
Kick-off: 12.40 (21.40 JST; 12.40 GMT)
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Andrea Piardi (Italy), Federico Vedovelli (Italy)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (Italy)

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