Dearns out, Japan change captain for Centenary Test vs Canada

Japan head coach Eddie Jones has made five changes to the starting XV that crashed to a 56-17 defeat to Australia three weeks ago for Saturday’s Centenary Test against Canada in Niigata City.

Notably, captain and lock Warner Dearns is out as one of three changes to the pack, with Jack Cornelsen named as Harry Hockings’ partner in the second row.

Scrum-half Naoto Saito takes on the armband in the absence of Dearns. Saito has captained the Brave Blossoms twice before, against Uruguay and England in 2024.

The other changes to the forwards come at hooker and blindside flanker, where Mamoru Harada and Kanji Shimokawa come into the team in place Hayate Era and Ben Gunter.

Fixture

Internationals

Japan

22:50

Today

Canada

All Stats and Data

In the backs, Yuya Hirose replaces Shunsuke Uenobo at inside-centre and Inoke Burua is preferred to Yoshitaka Yazaki on the right wing.

Saturday’s Test marks the centenary of the forming of the Japan Rugby Union, with the Brave Blossoms hoping to mark the occasion with a first win in five matches.

Japan achieved a record score against Canada in the last two meetings, both in the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup, scoring 55 points in 2024 and then going two better the following year.

Last year’s 57-15 win was also Japan’s biggest-ever against Canada, bettering the 38-point margin achieved when winning 46-8 in 2001.

This weekend’s match is being played at the Denka Big Swan Stadium in Niigata, 18 years after the venue hosted the Brave Blossoms for the one and only previous time, a 75-29 win for Japan against Hong Kong China.

While Japan have a relatively new captain leading them, Canada’s Lucas Rumball extends his record as most-capped Canadian captain to 37 matches.

The No.8 has 67 caps overall and is the only player in the touring squad to have made over 50 Test appearances.

Japan:
1 Takato Okabe
2 Mamoru Harada
3 Shuhei Takeuchi
4 Jack Cornelsen
5 Harry Hockings
6 Ben Gunter
7 Kanji Shimokawa
8 Faulua Makisi
9 Naoto Saito (capt)
10 Ryunosuke Ito
11 Haruto Kida
12 Yuya Hirose
13 Dylan Riley
14 Inoke Burua
15 Takuro Matsunaga

Replacements:

16 Kenji Sato
17 Sojiro Otsuka
18 Takumi Inaba
19 Michael Stolberg
20 Esei Haangana
21 Tiennan Costley
22 Kenta Fukuda
23 Sam Greene