Wales let 12 point lead slip in Japan
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Wales let a 12 point lead slip in extreme heat at the Mikuni World Stadium in Kitakyushu as they failed to bring an end to their losing run as they went down to a 24-19 defeat to Japan.
It was an 18th successive defeat which saw Wales slump to 14th in the World Rugby rankings as the Japanese moved up to 12th. The two teams will meet again next weekend in Kobe.
Dewi Lake’s side led from the third minute to the 70th, when a driving line out from the home team saw them finally hit the front and bag a morale boosting win.
It was the worst possible start for Wales as Dragons skipper Ben Carter took a serious blow to the head on the Japanese 22 in the opening phase of play and went down with only 27 seconds on the clock. He was quickly attended to and carefully taken off the field.
James Ratti came into the game with less than a minute on the clock to join Teddy Williams in the second row. If that was a momentary set-back for Wales, they had a try to celebrate two minutes later.
The Japanese were caught offside in midfield in their 22 and Wales skipper Dewi Lake asked Sam Costelow to kick for touch on the right side of the pitch. Ratti won the line-out, Alex Mann passed on to the peeling Taulupe Faletau and the No 8’s run created a hole for Ben Thomas to squeeze through to score.
Costelow added the extras and Wales were up and running in pursuit of a much-needed win. Kieran Hardy almost grabbed a second as he raced onto a neat kick infield by Josh Adams, but the next score came from the home side.
A long throw to the tail of a line-out on the Wales 22 gave the Japanese the chance to launch their first attack and four passes later their full back Takuro Matsunaga sprinted over for a try that outside half Seungsin Lee converted to level things up.
The heat and humidity – it was 34 degrees and even hotter on the hat index given the humidity – made life very difficult for both sides and the pace of the game was slow and the error count high. There was a cooling break on 19 minutes and the first half lasted 60 minutes.
No sooner had the game re-started than Wales struck again, this time through a penalty try. Hardy chipped behind the home defence in the 22 and Josh Adams gave chase.
As the ball bounced into the in goal area the Wales wing challenged replacement full back Ichigo Nakakusu. In the battle for the ball Nakakusu, who had replaced the try scorer during the water break, hit the ball away from Adams and into touch.
After a lengthy consultation with the TMO, Argentine referee Damian Schneider decided to award a penalty try to Wales and to issue a yellow card against Nakakusu. Wales made the most of their extra player and within two minutes had conjured up a great score for wing Tommy Rogers after a great pick up at the base of a scrum by Taulupe Faletau on half-way.
That gave Wales a 12 point lead which they held to the break, but things changed in the second half. Japan got some speed into their game, found some momentum and turned the game around.
Nine minutes into the second half home lock Epineri Uluiviti had a try at the posts ruled out for a knock on in the build up, but there was no denying Nakakusu 10 minutes later when he raced over wide on the left after some good phase play.
Lee’s conversion cut the gap to five points and the No 10 then added a penalty five minutes later to make it a two point game. Now the Japanese tails were up and an impressive driving line out earned a matchwinning try for Halatoa Vailea in the 70th minute.
The latest conversion from Lee made it 24-19 and by keeping Wales pointless for the final 58 minutes of the game the victory in the first of the two tests went to the Japanese.
