ASIA5NATIONS TEST RUGBY: Brave Blossoms blow by physical S. Korea

[May 12, 2012, SEOUL]:  Hirotoki Onozawa scored his second hat-trick of this year’s HSBC Asian Five Nations (HSBC A5N) to help Japan to a 52-8 victory over South Korea at Seongnam Stadium on Saturday.

 

A week after 18-year-old Yoshikazu Fujita – starting in Onozawa’s place on the left wing, touched down six times against the United Arab Emirates –  Onozawa showed there was still plenty of life in his old legs.

 

The 34-year-old made it 49 tries from 70 tests to go equal with Doug Howlett as the fifth most prolific try scorer in international rugby.

 

“I told him before the game he had to score three tries,” Jones said of the Suntory Sungoliath flier. “He’s very obedient is Onozawa.”

Hirotoki Onozawa scored his second hat trick of HSBC A5N 2012 v Korea.

 

Despite Japan making it 19 bonus point wins from as many games in the five-year history of the tournament, Jones described the performance as “so, so.”

 

“We trained them really hard during the week and they were tired going into the game. But I was really pleased with the way they came back in the second half,” said Jones.

 

That slow start resulted in the game being scoreless for the first quarter - not that neither team had their chances.  Both teams threatened, but some impressive defence from both sides meant pressure was never turned into points – until Onozawa showed how it was done.

 

The wing made the most of a good break by Ayumu Goromaru to go over in in the corner, the fullback adding salt to the wound by adding the conversion from out wide.

Goromaru was also on target six minutes later when Shinya Makabe finished off a flowing move.

 

Flanker Yuta Mochizuki initiated the attack, not the first or last time that the Korean defence was unable to deal with his powerful runs.

 

“I though Yuta played really well,” said Jones. “He ran some good lines, has a good ball sense and was really strong in contact.”

 

The half closed with the Koreans threatening but some good tackling from the visitors ensured the teams turned around with Japan leading 14-0.

 

Jones brought on Atsushi Hiwasa following the break and, although last year’s HSBC A5N Emerging Player of the Year appeared a little rusty at times, it was the spark Japan needed.

 

After Korean reserve fly-half Park Hong Sik slotted over a penalty in the 44^th minute to get the Koreans on the board, Mochizuki went over for a well deserved try, which Goromaru converted to make it 21-3.

 

Onozawa then crossed for his second when Japan ran a simple backline move in the 52^nd minute and completed his hat trick five minutes later.

 

Sandwiched between the two tries was a five-pointer for Korean debutant Jang Sung Min, who crossed following some quick thinking by Japan-based scrumhalf Yan Young Hun.  It was Jang’s first try on his first touch of the ball in his first ever international for Korea.

 

With the Koreans tiring, and then down a man when Kim Young Nam was sent to the sin bin, Toshiaki Hirose crossed for Japan’s sixth try in the 71^st minute, before Takamichi Sasaki closed out the game with two well-taken tries.

 

Jones praised the Koreans for making things difficult for his side but added: “We’ve had three good training games now. We are now ready to step up.”

 

The scoreline flattered Japan to an extent, as South Korea fulfilled their promise to play positive rugby and manfully in defence.  The scoreline was 33-8 when Kim Young Nam was sin-binned and Japan made the Koreans pay for their indiscipline crossing over for three tries with the man advantage to blow the scoreline out to 52-8 by Kim’s return.

 

Korea coach Seo Chu Oh commented on his performance, “Full credit to both teams. Japan played very well but I think that our team played their hearts out and I am very proud of them. We will take a lot of positives from this game. Watching our performance against Japan makes me think that if we can continue to invest time and resources in our younger, domestic players we can continue to narrow the gap with Japan.

Korea centre Kim Nam Wook on the charge v Japan in Week 3 of HSBC A5N

 

In last night’s match, UAE outlasted a brave comeback from Kazakhstan 46-31 to pick up a crucial home win.  Kazakhstan will host South Korea next Saturday in Almaty, while Hong Kong travel to Tokyo in the hopes of getting their campaign back on track after last week’s loss to Korea at home (May 5). 

 

Today’s results see Japan remain comfortably atop the HSBC A5N table with 18 points, followed by Hong Kong with seven points, UAE with six points and Korea on five points and Kazakhstan on one point.

 

KOREA squad v Japan

1. Yeo, You Jae, 2. Shin, Young Jin, 3. Heo, Woong, 4. Young, Kwon Woo © 5. Park, Soon Chai, 6. Lee, Kwang Moon, 7. Kim, Hyun Soo, 8. Han, Kun Kyu, 9. Yan, Young Hun, 10. Park, Hong Sik, 11. Kim, Gwong Min, 12. Kim, Nam Wook, 13. Park, Noh Hoon, 14. Cho, In Soo, 15, Kim, Won Yong, 16. Kim, Jin Woong, 17. Kim, Sung Hwan, 19. Kim, Young Nam, 20. Park, Wan Yong, 21. Jegal, Bin, 22. Jang, Sung Min.

JAPAN squad v Korea

1. Yusuke Nagae, 2. Ryuhei Arita, 3. Kensuke Hatakeyama, 4. Shinya Makabe, 5. Hitoshi Ono, 6. Yuta Mochizuki, 7. Takamichi Sasaki, 8. Michael Leitch, 9. Jun Fujii, 10. Kosei Ono, 11. Hirotoki Onozawa, 12. Harumichi Tatekawa, 13. Tomohiro Senba, 14. Toshiaki Hirose ©, 15. Ayumu Goromaru, 16. Takeshi Kizu, 17. Hiroshi Yamashita, 18. Shoji Ito, 19. Yusaku Kuwazuru, 20. Atsushi Hiwasa, 21. Yu Tamura, 22. Yasunori Nagatomo. 

HSBC Asian 5 Nations TOP 5, Match 6:  South Korea v Japan

Venue: Seongnam Stadium, Seoul, South Korea

Half- time score:            0-14                  Full- time score:      8-52

Jersey	Name	Event	Score
First Half
11	Hirotoki Onozawa	Try	0-5
15	Ayumu Goromaru	Conversion	0-7
4	Shinya Makabe	Try	0-12
15	Ayumu Goromaru	Conversion	0-14
Second Half
10	Park, Hong Sik (KOR)	Penalty	3-14
6	Yuta Mochizuki	Try	3-19
15	Ayumu Goromaru	Conversion	3-21
11	Hirotoki Onozowa	Try	3-26
22	Jang, Sung Min	Try	8-26
11	Hirotoki Onozowa	Try	8-31
15	Ayumu Goromaru	Conversion	8-33
14	Hirose Toshiaki	Try	8-38
7	Takamichi Sasaki	Try	8-43
21	Yu Tamura	Conversion	8-45
15	Takamich Sasaki	Try	8-50
21	Yu Tamura	Conversion	8-52

 

Scoring Leaders

Name	Country	Try	Conversion	Penalty	DG	Total
Hirotoki Onozawa	JPN	3				15
Sasaki Takamichi	JPN	2				10
Ayumu Goromaru	JPN		4			8
Shinya Makabe	JPN	1				5
Yuta Mochizuki	JPN	1				5
Jang, Sung Min	KOR	1				5
Toshiaki Hirose	JPN	1				5
Yu Tamura	JPN		2			4
Park, Hong Sik	KOR			1		3

 

For more information on the HSBC Asian 5 Nations please visit www.asian5nations.com, or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HSBC.A5N.  Matches will be live scored by Twitter @asian5nations.