International rugby thrilled fans in Grafton as Japan Under-23 defeated Fiji Under-20 48\u201339 at the Hay Street Rugby Fields during the Coffs Coast Festival of Rugby.<\/p>\n
Coached by Eddie Jones, the Japanese side showcased strong attacking rugby in front of one of the largest crowds seen at a local rugby match in the city.<\/p>\n
Jones said bringing international fixtures to regional areas was important for grassroots development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great showpiece for rugby coming out to the country area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Australian Stockman Rugby side defeated the Grafton Redmen 50\u20137 in the curtain-raiser match.<\/p>\n
Redmen coach Gary Powell said the experience would help prepare the side ahead of the Mid North Zone season.<\/p>\n
The international fixtures formed part of a broader regional rugby festival designed to strengthen pathways and showcase elite talent in country centres.<\/p>\n
From the Northern Rivers Times News Desk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International rugby thrilled fans in Grafton as Japan Under-23 defeated Fiji Under-20 48\u201339 at the Hay Street Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[290957,64,63,290958,290959,290960,290961,290962,290963,290964,290965,290966,290967,290968,290969,290970,290971,290972,290973,290974,290975,290976,290977,290978,290979,290980,290981,290982,290983,290984,290985,290986,290987,290988,290989,290990,760,85,290991,290992,290993,290994],"class_list":{"0":"post-596078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-alstonville-news","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-stockman-rugby-team-match","12":"tag-ballina-news","13":"tag-ballina-shire-news","14":"tag-byron-bay-news","15":"tag-byron-shire-news","16":"tag-casino-nsw-news","17":"tag-clarence-valley-news","18":"tag-clarence-valley-rugby-event","19":"tag-coffs-coast-festival-of-rugby-grafton","20":"tag-coolangatta-news","21":"tag-coraki-news","22":"tag-eddie-jones-japan-under-23-rugby","23":"tag-evans-head-news","24":"tag-goonellabah-news","25":"tag-grafton-news","26":"tag-grafton-redmen-rugby-union","27":"tag-grafton-rugby-international-match","28":"tag-iluka-news","29":"tag-japan-vs-fiji-rugby-grafton-nsw","30":"tag-kyogle-news","31":"tag-lennox-head-news","32":"tag-lismore-news","33":"tag-maclean-news","34":"tag-mid-north-zone-rugby-preparation-match","35":"tag-mullumbimby-news","36":"tag-murwillumbah-news","37":"tag-northern-rivers-advertising","38":"tag-northern-rivers-breaking-news","39":"tag-northern-rivers-community-news","40":"tag-northern-rivers-newspaper","41":"tag-northern-rivers-times-news","42":"tag-nsw-northern-rivers-local-news","43":"tag-richmond-valley-news","44":"tag-rugby","45":"tag-sports","46":"tag-tweed-heads-news","47":"tag-tweed-shire-news","48":"tag-woodburn-news","49":"tag-yamba-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596078","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=596078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}