London — Japan rugby coach Eddie Jones has made two changes to his starting line-up for the test against South Africa at Wembley on Saturday, looking for continuity after a narrow loss to Australia last week.
Charlie Lawrence replaces Shogo Nakano at centre, while Kenji Sato will play at hooker in place of Hayate Era in the two alterations to the side that suffered a 19-15 defeat against the Wallabies in Tokyo last weekend.
Michael Leitch captains the side as he did against South Africa in their Rugby World Cup shock in Brighton in 2015, when Japan beat the Springboks 34-32 in one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history.
Team: 15–Yoshitaka Yazaki, 14–Kippei Ishida, 13–Dylan Riley, 12–Charlie Lawrence, 11–Tomoki Osada, 10–Lee Seung-sin, 9–Shinobu Fujiwara, 8–Michael Leitch (captain), 7–Kanji Shimokawa, 6–Ben Gunter, 5–Warner Dearns, 4–Jack Cornelsen, 3–Shuhei Takeuchi, 2–Kenji Sato, 1–Kenta Kobayashi
Replacements: 16–Shodai Hirao, 17–Ryosuke Iwaihara, 18–Keijiro Tamefusa, 19–Tyler Paul, 20–Faulua Makisi, 21–Kenta Fukuda, 22–Sam Greene, 23–Tiennan Costley.
Reuters
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