RUGBY TEST MATCH: Asia Five Nations

21.05.2011
Japan v Sri Lanka in Colombo (Asia5Nations)

Venue:

Referee: James Fitzgerald (United Arab Emirates)

Preview
Sri Lanka can expect a very tough day as Japan heads towards yet another Asia Five Nations Championship. The Lankans are looking at relegation unless they can produce a game from heaven an actually defeat Japan, but I don’t think so. If they play well, Sri Lanka should hold Japan to under the century. If not…

Previous Encounters
Sri Lanka has on all but one occasion, faced a Japan XV in previous encounters.
22.04.2003 Japan XV 36-8 in Colombo (Asia Tournament, Pool A)
08.10.2002 Japan XV 129-6 in Pusan (Asia Games)
16.12.1998 Japan XV 116-0 in Bangkok (Asia Games, Semi-final)
24.10.1994 Japan XV 67-3 in Kuala Lumpur (14th Asia Championship)
22.09.1992 Japan XV 89-3 in Hong Kong (13th Asia Championship)

Sri Lanka played their only previous full test match against Japan in 1974, losing 44-6

GWC Rugby Rankings
Asia Table-Japan 1st, Sri Lanka 5th

IRB Ranking Points
Japan 71.45, Sri Lanka 47.24

Prediction: Japan by 85 points

Teams

Japan:
1. Kensuke Hatakeyama 2. Takeshi Kizu 3. Nozomu Fujita 4. Hitoshi Ono 5. Luke Thompson 6. Takeshi Kikutani © 7. Toetuu Taufa 8. Itaru Taniguchi 9. Fumiaki Tanaka 10. Shaun Webb 11. Hirotoki Onozawa 12. Yuta Imamura 13. Alisi Tupuailai 14. Takehisa Usuzuki 15. Ghosi Tachikawa 16. Hiroki Yuhara 17. Naoki Kawamata 18. Justin Ives 19. Michael Leitch 20. Astushi Hiwasa 21. James Arlidge 22. Atsushi Tanabe
Head Coach: John Kirwan

Sri Lanka:
1. Terrence Henry, 2. Achala Perera, 3. Nishal Meepage 4. Senaka Bandara 5. Sajith Saranga 6. Keith Gurusinghe 7. Danuska Perera 8. Sean Wijesinghe (C) 9. Roshan Weeraratne 10. Fazil Marija 11. Lasintha Costa 12. Chula Susantha 13. Chanaka Chandimal 14. Nuwan Hettiarachchi 15. Saliya Kumara 16. Kishore Jehan 17. Eranga Swarnathilaka 18. Dinesh Sanjeewa 19. Ishan Noor 20. Prasad Chaturaga 21. Charith Senaviratne 22. Shabeer Mohamad
Head Coach: