Eddie Jones makes one change to the starting XV that was beaten by Wales (21-28)
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The Japan Rugby Football Union has just officially announced the Japan XV that will face England (5th in the world) on Saturday in the Nations Championship 2026. Coach Eddie Jones makes only one change to the starting XV compared to the team that was beaten by Wales (21 to 28).
With Inoke Burua (Kobe) injured and unavailable , the Australian coach has decided to start Riku Tokito (Musashi) on the left wing. The Japanese Sevens international, known for his strength in the air, will thus earn his first cap for the Brave Blossoms.
Riku Tokito recently shone with the Japanese national rugby sevens team at the Nagoya Asian Games. The other known change is on the bench with the return of scrum-half Shinobu Fujiwara (Tokyo-Bay).
Japan is expecting a very difficult match against an English team that cruised to a 45-22 victory over Australia last week.
JAPAN
Starting XV: 1-Yota Kamimori (4 caps) 2-Mamoru Harada (21 caps) 3-Shuhei Takeuchi (32 caps) 4-Harry Hockings (11 caps) 5-(cc) Warner Dearns (39 caps) 6-Ben Gunter (27 caps) 7-Kanji Shimokawa (31 caps) 8-Jack Cornelsen (39 caps)
9- (cc) Naoto Saito (38 caps) 10-Riku Kitahara (1 cap) 11-Riku Tokito (0 caps) 12-Samisoni Tua (10 caps) 13-Dylan Riley (47 caps) 14-Kippei Ishida (12 caps) 15-Kazuma Ueda (10 caps)
Substitutes: 16-Kenji Sato (14 caps) 17-Sojiro Otsuka (10 caps) 18-Opeti Helu (3 caps) 19-Michael Stolberg (8 caps) 20-Tiennan Costley (20 caps) 21-Shinobu Fujiwara (22 caps) 22-Shinya Komura (4 caps) 23-Lee Chi Su (2 caps)
