TOKYO – Japan clinched the Pacific Nations Cup for the first time since 2019 with a 20-15 win over Fiji in Saturday’s title decider.<\/p>\n
Replacement back Samisoni Tua gave Eddie Jones’ team a decisive lead when he broke a 15-15 deadlock with his try in the 72nd minute at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.<\/p>\n
The two sides were meeting in the tournament final for the third consecutive year, with the Brave Blossoms looking to reverse defeats in the previous two editions.<\/p>\n
Japan fullback Sam Greene opened the scoring with a penalty before record seven-time champions Fiji hit back through a Virimi Vakatawa try and Caleb Muntz conversion to take a 7-3 lead.<\/p>\n
The momentum shifted when Fiji’s Mesake Doge was shown a yellow card in the 19th minute. Japan quickly capitalized, with Mamoru Harada crossing for a try in the 22nd minute before Greene added the conversion to restore a three-point advantage.<\/p>\n
Despite playing down a man, Fiji were able to find a second try through Tevita Ikanivere and retake the lead in the 27th minute, with Muntz missing the conversion to leave his side ahead 12-10 until the break.<\/p>\n
Japan lock Ben Gunter powered across the line to give his side a 15-12 lead in the 58th minute, before Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula slotted a penalty to put Fiji on level terms.<\/p>\n
After Japan kicked for touch from a penalty, Tua burst over from an ensuing ruck.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been beaten in the final the last two years and to win at home, with a great crowd here, is good for the team’s development,” Jones said. “What I was really pleased about was our defensive effort today. We’re not known as a defensive team, and we really barred up today.”<\/p>\n
Canada defeated the United States 19-16 in the third-place playoff played earlier at the stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO – Japan clinched the Pacific Nations Cup for the first time since 2019 with a 20-15 win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-897876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897876","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=897876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}