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At first glance, the XV selected by Joe Schmidt could smack of hubris, but the Wallabies coach is keen to stress his much-changed line-up is based on player management, explaining during the week:
We have already had ten Test matches, three against a big team like the British and Irish Lions, the Rugby Championship, who are very physical. There is a degree of fatigue. We only had a nine-day break after the Rugby Championship before we came together to get ready to travel here. I think it’s just around energy management as much as anything.
I think with five test matches in five weeks coming up on the back of a pretty intense Rugby Championship where we were in the mix right until the finish of every one of those six games, and then three British & Irish Lions tests before that, I think it’s just trying to get everyone to the finish line.
I know last year, by the time we got to the second half of the Irish test match, players were willing, but energy levels were just starting to taper a little bit.
Part of the job of the coaching staff is to manage risk as best we can. If we don’t give opportunity to the squad, then I think we start to lose that energy toward the end of a five-test window. Particularly when you’re traveling such long distances and jumping time zones, fatigue becomes pretty apparent within two or three weeks, let alone five consecutive weeks, let alone on the back of ten test matches that we’ve had already.
Brave Blossoms Head Coach Eddie Jones was feeling confident when he announced his side.
We’ve had really good preparation, so we feel well prepared for the game. Australia is coming back as a growing power in world rugby, and I’ve admired the way they’ve played this year. But we’re looking forward to taking them on, playing a Japanese style of rugby in what should be a really good game at the National Stadium. We’ve got a great referee in Ben O’Keeffe who likes the game to be open and flowing, so we’ve prepared for a game like that. It’s a big task for us but we feel like were up for it and we’re ready to take them on.
Australia XV
There are 13 changes from the side that lost last time out against the All Blacks as Joe Schmidt charts a course through a condensed five-match spring tour. Nick Champion de Crespigny takes the captain’s armband, the problematic halfback pairing remains the same despite the return to camp of Carter Gordon, and Angus Bell gets a chance to assert himself in the front row.
1 Angus Bell, 2 Josh Nasser, 3 Zane Nonggorr, 4 Jeremy Williams, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6 Nick Champion de Crespigny (c), 7 Carlo Tizzano, 8 Rob Valetini, 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Tane Edmed, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 12 Hunter Paisami, 13 Josh Flook, 14 Corey Toole, 15 Andrew Kellaway.
Reserves: 16 Billy Pollard, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Tom Robertson, 19 Josh Canham, 20 Harry Wilson, 21 Ryan Lonergan, 22 Hamish Stewart, 23 Filipo Daugunu
Japan XV
Michael Leitch, the second most capped Japanese international, runs out for the 90th time. He is one of a clutch of overseas-born players, including Australian citizens Jack Cornelsen, Ben Gunter, Dylan Riley, and Sam Greene. 21 year old fullback Yoshitaka Yazaki will add to his five caps after starring for a Japan XV against Australia A last weekend.
1 Kenta Kobayashi, 2 Hayate Era, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 4 Jack Cornelsen, 5 Warner Dearns (c), 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 8 Michael Leitch, 9 Shinobu Fujiwara, 10 Seungsin Lee, 11 Tomoki Osada, 12 Shogo Nakano, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Kippei Ishida, 15 Yoshitaka Yazaki.
Reserves: 16 Kenji Sato, 17 Ryosuke Iwaihara, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Tyler Paul, 20 Tiennan Costley, 21 Kenta Fukuda, 22 Charlie Lawrence, 23 Sam Greene
Beyond the beef with Eddie Jones, today’s Test is vital in the race to secure a strong seeding for the 2027 World Cup draw.
With the tournament expanding to 24 teams for the first time, the group phase will feature six pools of four nations. The six top-ranked sides in the world will be separated at this stage of the draw, and if early matches go to form, they should also avoid each other in the first knockout stage (round of 16). The ranking cut-off point for this huge advantage is December 2025.
Rankings points are traded during each Test. These are based on the match result, the relative strength of each team, the margin of victory, and there is an allowance for home advantage. In short, this means underdog victories are worth their weight in gold, while upsets at home can prove very costly.
Argentina (currently sixth on 83.82) and Australia (seventh on 82.93) are locked in a battle for that crucial final seeding, meaning every Test between now and December carries significance beyond the 80 minutes of action to avoid a nightmare World Cup scenario. After today’s challenge the Wallabies face England, Italy, Ireland, and France in consecutive weekends in November, with the Pumas taking on Wales, Scotland, and England.
Another chapter will be written in Australian rugby’s long and tempestuous relationship with Eddie Jones this evening, and for the Wallabies it’s an opportunity to lay some ghosts to rest.
The Japanese believe in onryō – malicious spirits who perished full of anger and then return to scare the living to death and steal their souls. The Wallabies face an onryō of sorts this weekend – their former coach Eddie Jones, who led them off a cliff at the 2023 World Cup and then abandoned them to coach Japan.
This will be the first time the Wallabies have faced off against their old mentor since he fled a five-year $5m contract just nine months into a quest to rebuild Australian rugby for home men’s and women’s World Cups in 2027 and 2029. Instead, Jones scarcely checked in on the Wallaroos and won two of his nine Tests as the Wallabies were eliminated in RWC pool stages for the first time.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of Japan v Australia in the opening match of the Wallabies’ spring tour. Kick-off at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo is 2.50pm local time (4.50pm AEDT).
This is one of those standalone internationals for which context and narrative will be much easier to deduce with hindsight.
Is this the Eddie Jones Test? Is it a gentle commemorative 50th anniversary of the first meeting between the two sides at the SCG? Is it the springboard to a triumphant European tour? Or will it expose tired Australian legs following a gruelling Rugby Championship and Lions series? Will Joe Schmidt’s transformed XV demonstrate impressive squad depth or the coach’s overthinking? In the race for a crucial World Cup seeding is this the moment the 2027 hosts seize the initiative from Argentina, or hand it to them?
All of these ponderables will likely only concern the die-hards, with this afternoon’s match accessible only on pay tv and coinciding with a blockbuster ODI. Following the big push to make the Wallabies a more accessible national team over recent months, it will be interesting to measure the care factor over this result, win or lose.
I’ll be back with more shortly. If you want to get in touch while I’m around, the address is [email protected].
