....... Japan had that if they had the depth but good show by them
I am impressed by how much they have changed since 2011. They played good rugby in this series, inventive rugby. Next year they will have a much larger pool than in the previous years, and they do have 1 to 3 U20’s coming through though the U20’s was relegated today.
They missed many 1st selection players in this test series.
- Leitch (injured) - captain
- Yama****a (unavailable/Chiefs)
- Broadhurst (unavailable)
- Thompson (unavailable)
- Goromaru (injured)
- Tanaka (injured)
- Matsushima (injured)
- Yamada (sevens/injured)
- Fujita (sevens)
- Fukuoka (sevens)
- I am missing one more name…
They are competitive, and they need their better players in the national team and with the Sunwolves, unfortunately the ‘best’ players are locked up with the Top League. At this stage they have not signed a single player to the 2017 Super Rugby season or management members other than Jamie Joseph.
Joseph is going to have his hands full, in my opinion he should go to Panasonic and broker a deal to have Robbie Deans coach the Sunwolves and through this setup to loan Top League players to the JRFU.