U20 Trophy: Japan by One
In the final of World Rugby’s Under-20 Trophy tournament played in Brazil, Japan won 35-34 against Portugal.
That one-point victory means that Japan will play in World Rugby’s Under-20 Championship in 2020 in the place of Scotland who will be playing in the Trophy.
The teams each scored five tries, but two conversions beat a penalty goal!
Japan lead 14-0 early in the match but three tries for Portugal gave them a 21-14 lead at the break, helped by two yellow cards for Ryosuke Kawase for an air tackle and Ryuto Fukuyama for a high tackle, which reduced Japan to 13 players at the half’s end.
Those two came back to glory with the last points that won the match – a try by Kawase and a conversion by Fukuyama.
Scorers
For Japan:
Tries: Maruo, Vailea, Harada, Penalty try (scrum infringement), Kawase
Cons: Fukuyama 4 In addition there were the two automatic points for the penalty try.
For Portugal:
Tries: Marta, Costa, Storti 2, Salgado
Cons: Portela 3
Pen: Portela
Teams
Japan: 15 Ryosuke Kawase, 14 Yuchirou Wada, 13 Tomoki Osada, 12 Taihei Kusaka, 11 Futo Yamaguchi, 10 Ryuto Fukuyama, 9 Kaisei Tamura, 8 Takamasa Maruo, 7 Shota Fukui (captain), 6 Halatoa Vailea, 5 Ryusei Koike, 4 Ohgi Yanamoto, 3 Sho Maeda, 2 Mamoru Harada, 1 Yota Kamimori
Replacements: 16 Daiki Nishiyama, 17 Gun Tajima, 18 Syohei Tsujimura, 19 Terutaka Oka, 20 Kouki Matsumoto, 21 Akito Okui, 22 Hayato Fukunishi, 23 Ryota Tomoike, 24 Takumi Aoki, 25 Moeki Fukushi, 26 Keita Inayoshi
Portugal: 15 Simão Bento, 14 Raffaele Storti, 13 Rodrigo Marta, 12 José Do Carmo, 11 Francisco Salgado, 10 Jerónimo Portela, 9 Joaquim Félix, 8 José Roque (captain), 7 Manuel Pinto, 6 Manuel Maia, 5 Martim Belo, 4 Helano Alberto, 3 Duarte Conde, 2 Rodrigo Bento, 1 David Costa
Replacements: 16 Márcio Pinheiro, 17 António Cunha, 18 Frederico Simões, 19 André Gouveia, 20 José Madeira, 21 Sebastião Silva, 22 Pedro Lucas, 23 Tomás Lamboglia, 24 João Vieira, 25 José Santos, 26 Francisco Rosa
Referee: Damián Schneider (Argentina)
Assistant referees: Luke Rogan (USA), Cauã Ricardo (Brazil)
Summary of Results, Day 4
Final: Japan vs Portugal, 35-34
Tonga vs Uruguay, 29-27
Canada vs Kenya, 52-13
Brazil vs Hong Kong, 32-29 (winning drop goal in extra time)
Final Standings
1 Japan
2 Portugal
3 Tonga
4 Uruguay
5 Canada
6 Kenya
7 Brazil
8 Hong Kong
