A bit left field but what has happened to Taine Basham?Good player I thought but more importantly, great name.

@Catogrande said in November Internationals 2025 : Wales v Japan:

A bit left field but what has happened to Taine Basham?Good player I thought but more importantly, great name.

Played for the wrong team - Dragons; bit of injury; and inconsistent, tries too hard at times and gives away YCs

No out and out open side for Wales - Reffell and Deaves in the squad - but Mann is solid and has a great engine.

Shutting down the Japanese pick & go is important. Mann is a great tackler.

@MiketheSnow Reffell isn't in the squad Mike.
I'd have picked Deaves to start the Japan game personally.
They thrive on quick ball, I just think picking a natural blindside at 7 is a risk given the opposition.
Hope I'm proved wrong though.
We need to shore up defensively this week, fell off far too many tackles last week, you can't miss 30 tackles and win a test match.

@Catogrande bit unlucky as Mike said he's had many injuries & the Dragons are awful which hasn't helped. Also stuck behind Jac Morgan, Reffell and a few others, it's the one position where we do seem to have some depth.
His move to Cardiff has reinvigorated him I think, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in a Welsh shirt at some point.

Japan Team

Forwards

1 Kenta Kobayashi
2 Kenji Sato
3 Keijiro Tamefusa
4 Epineri Uluiviti
5 Warner Dearns (Captain)
6 Jack Cornelsen
7 Kanji Shimokawa
8 Faolua Makisi

Backs

9 Naoto Saito
10 Seungsin Lee
11 Tomoki Osada
12 Charlie Lawrence
13 Dylan Riley
14 Kippei Ishida
15 Yoshitaka Yazaki

Replacements

16 Shodai Hirao
17 Sho Furuhata
18 Shuhei Takeuchi
19 Harry Hockings
20 Tyler Paul
21 Kenta Fukuda
22 Shinya Komura
23 Kazuma Ueda

7-7 after 25 minutes.

@sparky some soft YCs being dished out in this game

@sparky i was gonna say , how bad are Wales not being good enogh to take advantage of a 2 man numerical advantage ?

Wales are bloody awful, no surprise I guess but still.
Japan down to 13 and we still can't take advantage. Shows the complete lack of confidence I guess.

Wales 14 Japan 10. Neither side playing with much confidence or fluency.

Japan pay the price for an awful exit

Josh Adams given a 20 minute red card for reckless play.

Is Warner Derns one NZ Rugby missed ? Hes such a good player
Imagine Holland and Derns in your lineout both got massive engines

Try Japan.

Another awful red zone exit from Japan gifts Wales 7 points , why not just field the kick and just kick it out ..14 points gifted from 2 poor exits

Japan are butchering this

Into the last ten minutes, Japan two points ahead.

Time running out for Wales.....

Japan less than three minutes from a famous win.

Wales are facing being a third ranked team at the 2026 Rugby World Cup.

90 seconds to go.

Another Yellow Card.

Wales with the 12 man rolling maul.....

Jared Evans has a penalty kick to win it.

The biased commentator Welsh rugby needs this ‍️

Hockings must be an Aussie

He's gets it.

Wales win by one against Japan.

And they celebrate like they've won the World Cup.

Japan butchered this

Wales 24 Japan 23.

Huge ramifications for Welsh rugby ,what is this commentator on ?
Its not as if you have beaten a top 5 team ..

We were bloody awful, feel for Japan but they butchered that last 10 minutes.
That yellow for Hockin was crackers, why do that in the last minute? Bonkers.

@Steven-Harris said in November Internationals 2025 : Wales v Japan:

Huge ramifications for Welsh rugby ,what is this commentator on ?
Its not as if you have beaten a top 5 team ..

I really like Welsh rugby - attractive play, great home crowds, their history - but the commentary is so OTT, it's embarrassing.

@Steven-Harris the huge ramifications were missing the 3rd tier of world cup seedings rather than they'd beaten Japan I thought

@pooler-fan fair point ,well done to your lads the set piece scrum especially was possibly the difference but i also thought Japan butchered that game

@Steven-Harris totally agree, we were very lucky to win that.
We only started to show any intensity in attack in those last few minutes when chasing the game.
I thought our performance was actually better last week against Argentina even though we lost heavily, that just about says it all.

@Steven-Harris said in November Internationals 2025 : Wales v Japan:

Huge ramifications for Welsh rugby ,what is this commentator on ?
Its not as if you have beaten a top 5 team ..

But as others have mentioned we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance at the next RWC

A loss yesterday would have consigned us to where Welsh football was for over 50 years

Unable to make the Euros or World Cup because we were the third ranked team in the group and the other 2 of 3 teams were of our standard

Wales blew so many good chances and didn’t utilise our best strengths - LRZ - but there is already improvement in just two matches

In two years time we will be giving Top 5 sides a fucking good game

Thought Mann had another great match and whilst he’s no Jac Morgan cemented his place in the back row

Tomos is rocks & diamonds

Best game I’ve seen from Dan Edwards

But I still prefer Jarrod Evans

Nails to kick that penalty to win the match

Adams can be put out to pasture now

Dumb, dumb, dumb

We’re going to get well beaten the next two matches

The key is to do what we’re trying to do better, with more accuracy

If we can score 3-4 tries against both NZ and SA by opening them up then the rest of it will fall in to place