England overpower youthful Japan

An efficient performance by England brushed aside an inexperienced Japanese side 52-17 on Saturday in the first match of Eddie Jones' second spell as the host's head coach.

England bided their time on a muggy day in Tokyo, absorbing the pressure created by Japan's sharp handling in open play before exploiting a defence that progressively lost cohesion.

Japan kicked a penalty in the second minute but England engineered tries for flanker Chandler Cunningham-South, flyhalf Marcus Smith and winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso in the first half-hour.

England tightened the screw when centre Henry Slade crossed on the stroke of halftime and further scores for Alex Mitchell, Ben Earl, Harry Randall and Sam Underhill took the game beyond Japan.

The front row of Bevan Rodd, Jamie George and Dan Cole — with more than 200 caps between the latter two — squeezed Japan's scrum for penalties and the forwards won their line-outs.

In contrast, Jones, who coached England from 2015-22, picked four debutants in the starting 15, including 20-year-old fullback Yoshitaka Yazaki. Japan's 23-man squad averaged 11 Test caps each.

England were ruthless early in the second half and in the 59th minute, Randall leapt past a weakly guarded ruck a metre from the Japanese line to score even after Smith had been sent to the sin bin for an early tackle.

The final quarter was sloppier from England, who looked tired in Smith's absence and allowed Japan to claw back two tries.

True to form, Japan looked their most dangerous when stringing together offloads and broke through the gain line on multiple occasions in both halves.

Their reward came in the 68th minute when the ball was shipped out wide for diminutive winger Koga Nezuka to dive into the corner.

Barely a minute later, lock Warner Dearns juggled a loose offload then sidestepped to break the England line before passing to Takuya Yamasawa to score the try of the match.

“We showed enough in attack to know we're going in the right direction,” Jones told a news conference.

“We're 10 days into a four-year project,” he added.

Reuters