JAPAN v PHILIPPINES: World Cup Qualifying Asia Five Nations

20.04.2013

Feature Match No.1

Preview
The 2013 Asia Five nations kicks off in the Japanese city of Fukuoka The Philippines, whose rise in Asian rugby has been remarkable, will take on the top team in Asia.

I’d expect it to be a win for Japan, possible fairly comfortably in the end. The Philippines has a speedy and elusive looking backline but I expect the problems they will have will be in the forwards. Still they could put up a real fight. Only two of their players are from clubs in the Philippines. The rest have considerable experience in Japan and also New Zealand, Australia, The USA and England.

These two teams have never met before.

Prediction: Japan by 60 points.

TEAMS

Japan

15		Ayumu Goromaru	Yamaha
14		Toshiaki Hirose (Capt.)	Toshiba
13		Male Sau	Yamaha
12		Harumichi Tatekawa	Kubota
11		Hirotoki Onozawa	Suntory
10		Kosei Ono	Suntory
9		Atsushi Hiwasa	Suntory
8		Koliniashi Ryu Holani	Panasonic
7		Michael Broadhurst	Ricoh
6		Takashi Kikutani	Toyota
5		Shinya Makabe	Suntory
4		Hitoshi Ono	Toshiba
3		Hiroshi Yamashita	Kobelco
2		Hiroki Yuhara	Toshiba
1		Masataka Mikami	Toshiba
16		Yusuke Aoki	Suntory
17		Takuma Asahara	Toshiba
18		Kensuke Hatakeyama	Suntory
19		Shoji Ito	Kobelco
20		Justin Ives	Canon
21		Hendrik Tui	Panasonic
22		Yu Tamura	NEC
23		Kenki Fukuoka	Tsukuba
		HEAD COACH: Eddie Jones

http://www.japonrugby.net/le-xv-japonais-face-aux-philippines.php

Philippines

15		Michael Letts	Kamaishi, Japan
14		Patrice Olivier	Yamaha, Japan
13		Matthew Saunders	NTT, Japan
12		Justin Coveney	Western Red Sharks, Japan
11		Joseph Matthews	Queanbeyan RFC, Australia
10		Gareth Holgate	Kyudun, Japan
9		James Price	Kyudun, Japan
8		Jake Ward	Clifton RFC, New Zealand
7		Christopher Hitch	Warnervale RFC, Australia
6		Terrence Carroll	Western Bulldogs RLFC, Austr.
5		Jaime Urquijo	Kraken RFC, USA
4		Stephen Howorth	St Austell RFC, England
3		Matthew Bellenie	Brighton RFC, England
2		Michael Duhig	Brothers RFC, Australia
1		Austin Dacanay	Tampa Crewe RFC, USA
16		David Robinson-Polkey	Mt Wellington RFC, New Zealand
17		Graeme Hagan	Pattaya Panthers
18		Joshua Bautista	Santa Rosa, USA
19		David Feeney	Manilla Nomads
20		Darran Seeto	Gordon Highlanders RFC, Austr.
21		Jake Letts	Kamaishi, Japan
22		Alexander Aronson	California Golden Bears RFC, USA
23		Jefferey Gregson	Coventry RFC, England
		HEAD COACH: Jarred Hodges

http://www.japonrugby.net/le-xv-philippin-face-au-japon.php

Hong Kong v United Arab Emirates

The other game in this competition sees the local side host UAE.

Prediction: Hong Kong by 60 points