All Blacks not looking past Japan
The world champion All Blacks arrived in Tokyo on Monday for their first Test match against Japan on Japanese soil and vowed to take nothing for granted.
"It's important that we start the tour well," flyhalf Dan Carter said upon arrival at Tokyo's Narita airport before Saturday's game at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo.
"We've got some really important games away from home so we have to make sure we continue the momentum that we have built throughout the season and play well," he told Kyodo news agency.
The match against the Brave Blossoms will be the first of four games the All Blacks will play in their Northern Hemisphere tour next month.
Head coach Steve Hansen opted to send eight players directly to Europe to prepare for the France Test on November 9.
The full squad will also take on England on November 16 and Ireland eight days later.
Aaron Cruden, who led New Zealand to the IRB Junior World Championship in Tokyo back in 2009, will join the squad later in the week for some promotional work before flying to France.
But there are still plenty of big names and World Cup winners in the 27-man squad, including Carter and captain Richie McCaw.
Carter said the All Blacks would not underestimate Japan despite their lowly No.15 ranking.
"I think Japanese rugby is on a high at the moment, the club competition is very strong and they had a couple of great Test matches against Wales," he told Kyodo.
"You know, they beat Wales in the last Test match so we have to make sure we do our homework on the Japan side so we can play well on Saturday."
Since former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones took over the Brave Blossoms in April last year, Japan have beaten Georgia and Romania, their first Test wins in Europe outside of a World Cup.
In June they upset an understrength Wales at home.
But Jones has been in hospital since a stroke two weeks ago, while his technical adviser and former Wallaby skills coach Scott Wisemantel is in charge of the Braves.
The All Blacks have previously faced Japan twice, at the 1995 and 2011 World Cups. Japan lost both encounters, including a 145-17 drubbing in the 1995 tournament.
A New Zealand XV trounced Japan twice in 1987 – in Osaka and Tokyo – but neither game was given Test match status.
The All Blacks last visited Japan in 2009 for a Bledisloe Cup match against Australia, which they won 32-19.
AFP
