Japan coach Eddie Jones’ challenge to rebuild the game in the Asian nation faces its toughest test of the year when they face international heavyweights New Zealand in Yokohama on Saturday.
Jones begins his second spell with the Brave Blossoms after leading the Wallabies through the disastrous 2023 international campaign.
During his time with the Wallabies, he backed the young players to lead the 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign, but that plan backfired spectacularly as the two-time world champions failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the history of the global tournament. .
He introduced the concept of youth to Japan
Despite this failure, Jones also introduced his youth concept when he took over as coach of Japan at the beginning of the year as he brought in several players from the Japanese university system into the Brave Blossoms squad.
This means that Japan no longer relies exclusively on the country’s club system – although there are still many club players in the national team – and there were concerns initially as Jones’ young side struggled during the mid-year tests losing all three of their matches. In that international window against England, Georgia and Italy.
Despite those setbacks, Jones continued to support his younger players and the Brave Blossoms showed improvement in the Pacific Nations Cup with victories over Canada, the United States and Samoa before suffering a 41-17 defeat to Fiji in the final of that competition in September.
Japan vs New Zealand Preview: All Blacks beat Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms and start year-end tour in style
The Brave Blossoms face an uphill task against the All Blacks, with whom they are unbeaten in five previous meetings, but Jones remains defiant and committed to his youth policy.
“We want to continue to bring new blood into Japanese rugby,” he told AAP. “Between 2020 and 2023, Japan has 33 new Test internationals over four years. In 2024, we have had 17 already.
“Bring new blood”
“We are bringing in new blood and creating a new generation of players to increase the depth and quality of our squad.”
Despite their defeat to Fiji in their previous match, the 64-year-old is happy with the progress the Brave Blossoms have made.
“We played very good rugby in the lead-up to the final, especially in terms of staying attacking,” Jones added.
“We need to achieve this against New Zealand.
“We want to attack them with our speed and relentless defence. We’ll have to be at work 100 per cent all the time. When you play New Zealand, it’s always the standard.”
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