Pool A
JAPAN 30 30
RUSSIA 10
Friday 20 September Tokyo Stadium. Att: 45,754
IN THIS MATCH
Russia scored the fastest try in a RWC opener – Kirill Golosnitskiy crossing in the fifth minute – and Luke Thompson became the second player to represent Japan in four World Cups, Yukio Motoki the other. Five Japan players made 50m-plus but no Russian hit that mark.
TURNING POINT
A brilliant offload from Timothy Lafaele set up Kotaro Matsushima’s first try and calmed the nerves after an error-strewn opening ten minutes – Will Tupou’s failure to take a high ball that led to Russia’s try a prime example. Japan weren’t perfect after that try but did enough to get the bonus-point win.
WINNERS’ PODIUM
Hat-trick hero Matsushima: “We were able to connect with each other. The roar of the fans became our driving force.”
AND THE LOSERS…
Fly-half Yury Kushnarev: “Japan are a very fast team, so if your defensive line is not organised they benefit from that a lot. Preventing counter-attacks is always a challenge. We wanted to pass the pressure on to their shoulders, but we have not managed to succeed.”
TEAM LINE-UPS
JAPAN W Tupou (R Yamanaka 71); K Matsushima, T Lafaele, R Nakamura, L Lemeki; Y Tamura (R Matsuda 67), Y Nagare (F Tanaka 61); K Inagaki (I Nakajima 55), S Horie (A Sakate 75), AA Valu (J Koo 55), W van der Walt (L Thompson 61), J Moore, M Leitch (capt, H Tui 71), P Labuschagne, K Himeno. Tries (4): Matsushima 12, 39, 69, Labuschagne 47. Cons: Tamura, Matsuda. Pens: Tamura 2.
V Artemyev (capt); G Davydov, V Ostroushko, D Gerasimov (V Sozonov 68), K Golosnitskiy; Y Kushnarev (R Gaisin 65), V Dorofeev (D Perov 33-40, 74); V Morozov (A Polivalov 65), S Selskii (E Matveev 65), K Gotovtsev (A Bitiev 68), A Ostrikov, B Fedotko (A Garbuzov 61), V Zhivatov (A Sychev 65), T Gadzhiev, N Vavilin. Golosnitskiy 5. Kushnarev. Kushnarev.
