Watch Australia A take on Japan XV this Saturday live and on-demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nSo what did we learn?<\/p>\n
1. Swain stormer<\/p>\n
Darcy Swain bullied Japan XV across the park in a stellar performance from the big lock.<\/p>\n
The two tries were a great show of his engine, backing up breaks to power over the line.<\/p>\n
But his work at lineout time is what the former Brumby has built a career off, as he pinched two and caused absolute chaos for the hosts.<\/p>\n
You know you\u2019re doing something right when the Japanese assistant coaches conceded at half-time that they needed to stop kicking for the lineout penalties because they were losing so many.<\/p>\n
They should\u2019ve listened – losing one to start the second half – a clear sign of Swain\u2019s destruction of any confidence.<\/p>\n
2. Donaldson adds quality<\/p>\n
Ben Donaldson did his chances of a Wallaby call-up little harm with a steady performance to piece apart Japan\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n
Donaldson\u2019s grubber in-behind created the field position for the opener and he threw the pass for Grealy to score the second.<\/p>\n
His in-field kicking game was solid throughout the match and finally broke the Japanese line late to set up Lington Ieli, backing this up with a deft ball out the back for Ryan\u2019s second.<\/p>\n
With just Tane Edmed and Carter Gordon as the two specialist halves on the Spring Tour, don\u2019t be surprised if Donaldson stays in Japan for the extra week.<\/p>\n
3. Faessler\u2019s reminder<\/p>\n
Hooker and skipper Matt Faessler was the pick of the Wallaby bunch that made the trip early to Japan.<\/p>\n
Faessler was a big body that the Japanese couldn\u2019t handle; the hooker looked unstoppable when he trucked the ball up.<\/p>\n
Second-rower Josh Canham also had some nice touches, including a vital lineout steal when the Aussies were briefly down to 13 late in the game.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hamish Stewart will lament two separate incidents after penalties that saw the Aussies marched ten and the centre sitting down for ten.<\/p>\n
4. Big Mac time\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the focus has been on the capped Wallabies, the Australia A fixture proved the perfect launchpad for Mac Grealy to make his Test case.<\/p>\n
Tom Wright\u2019s injury has opened the door at the back and Grealy looked at home against a quality Japanese outfit.<\/p>\n
He set up his own try with a nifty kick to force a hurried exit to win field position, backing this up with a stellar run from his own 22 to set up Swain\u2019s second.<\/p>\n
Rory Scott was also strong in the back row, with Lington Ieli and Ethan Dobbins adding impact off the bench.<\/p>\n
5. Early preview of next week Test<\/p>\n
While the scoreline blew out, we got a fair idea of what to expect when the two Test sides face off in a week.<\/p>\n
Japan XV were quick to add pace into the game, but struggled to breach the Australian defence in the first half.<\/p>\n
There was also plenty of opportunities on the counter, with the visitors striking three times for crucial tries.<\/p>\n
But moments like Yoshitaka Yazaki\u2019s solo try are a prime example of why you can\u2019t take them lightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A host of Test stars have had their stocks massively raised by a 71-7 win over Japan XV.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,124907,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-222074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-a","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}