Kosuke Endo starred for Japan with a five-try haul as the
defending champions got their HSBC Asian 5 Nations campaign off to
an impressive start with a 71-13 victory over Korea in Gyeonsang on
Saturday, signalling their intentions to secure the Asia 1
qualification spot at Rugby World Cup 2011.
The wing's haul - four of which came in the last 22
minutes of the match - is one more than Hirotoki Onozawa managed
against the same opponents last year and means that Japan have now
scored over 70 points in three of their last four encounters with
Korea.
Japan did not have it all their own way though, particularly
early on with the Brave Blossoms slow to start against Korea, who
were eager to bounce back from the disappointment of losing 32-8 to
Hong Kong last weekend and pushed their visitors hard but only had
three points to show for their efforts with Yoon Hee-Soo missing
two kicks at goal.
Despite not playing to their expected level, the Brave
Blossoms, the only Asian side ever to grace the Rugby World Cup
stage, still went in at half time with a 19-3 advantage after
hooker Shota Horie, scrum half Fumiaki Tanaka and Endo crossed for
tries with Ryan Nicholas kicking two conversions.
Korea ended the first half with only 14 men after scrum half
Park Wan-Yong was sin-binned and by the time he returned in the
47th minute the match was beyond the hosts, debutant Yasunori
Nagatomo scoring within a minute of the restart with captain
Takashi Kikutani also touching down as Japan move out to 33-3.
Not up to scratch
From there, it was virtually one-way traffic with Hitoshi Ono
and Hiroki Yuhara scoring tries before Endo grabbed the headlines
with tries in the 58th, 68th, 71st and 80th minutes at Gyeonsang
Rugby Stadium. Korea did manage to score a consolation try through
Cahe Jae Yong, who plays his club rugby in Japan with Toshiba.
"The first half was not to our level," admitted
Japan coach John Kirwan afterwards. "We need to work hard
moving forward, but I will take it as a first game and tell the
team to start from the second half."
Japan now return home to play their three remaining matches
in this year's Top 5 at the Prince Chicibu Memorial Stadium in
Tokyo with Arabian Gulf the next visitors on 8 May, followed by
Kazakhstan and Hong Kong over following two weekends.
A successful title defence will see Japan join hosts New
Zealand, France, Tonga and Canada in Pool A at RWC 2011, with
Kirwan - a World Cup winner with the All Blacks on home soil in
1987 - having set the target of two wins in the tournament.
Korea, meanwhile, will have a welcome bye next weekend to
regroup and get in some intensive preparation after seeing their
hopes of securing second spot and a place in cross-continental
play-off to determine the 20th and final qualifier for Rugby World
Cup 2011.
The threat of relegation is also now looming over them with
Korea the only side without a victory in this year's Top 5
after the Arabian Gulf upset Hong Kong 16-9 in Bahrain on Friday
night to bounce back from an opening 43-28 loss to Kazakhstan, the
2009 runners up, in Almaty in round one.
READ HOW THE ARABIAN GULF BEAT HONG KONG >>