The Brave Blossoms led the Tonga Ikale Tahi with a narrow scoreline in their Pacific Nations Cup semifinal at Dicks Sporting Goods Park, but put in probably their best half of rugby under Eddie Jones' second spell in charge as they ran out 62-24 winners.
Lokotui F. (5'), Tameifuna B. (26'), Poloniati V. (38'), Tapueluelu J. (63')
Tries
Hayate E. (10'), Fakatava A. (18'), Dearns W. (32'), Riley D. (42'), Fujiwara S. (55'), Sato K. (72'), Tamefusa K. (77'), Penalty Try (79')
Pellegrini P. (27', 39')
Conversions
Seung-Sin L. (11', 19', 33', 43', 57', 73', 78')
Penalties
Seung-Sin L. (50', 60')
The Brave Blossoms led the Tonga Ikale Tahi with a narrow scoreline in their Pacific Nations Cup semifinal at Dicks Sporting Goods Park, but put in probably their best half of rugby under Eddie Jones' second spell in charge as they ran out 62-24 winners.
The victory ensured a repeat of last year's PNC final as the Fijians thumped Canada 63-10 in the second semifinal. The result also means that the Japanese extended their undefeated record against Tonga to more than a decade and now lead the head-to-head count 7-4.
Tonga captain Ben Tameifuna said, "We are disappointed as we've worked hard these past few weeks..We got points in the first half, but couldn't build on that in the second half. We wish we could have our players every week, but this is what we have."
Victorious skipper Warner Dearns added, "Playing against Tonga is always going to be physical. We did enough to match them. Next week will be exciting in the final whoever we have to play."
There was a late change to the starting front row for Japan but the pack was immense in the game after they had to absorb an opening physical battle with the Pacific Islanders, and the forwards were at the heart of everything that was good as the mobile players ran riot and dominated at the set piece.
Pre-game, the Tongans' Sipi Tau was fierce and full of intent, but the Brave Blossoms accepted and more than met the challenge. There were plenty of threats from the side with former Welsh international Halaholo and Japan-based Charles Piatau both starting in the backs - in reality, there was X-factor all spread across the two teams, and it was on full display in an entertaining game.
Tonga had all the ball to start with and put good kicks into space - the pressure saw them score first after an opening period of ferocious phases as Fotu Lokotui crossed over. The TMO denied the try by bundling over from the next lineout.
To their annoyance, Tonga gave away a free kick for forming huddles at the lineout after being warned and the resulting tap and go from Japan tighthead Shuhei Takeuchi, who won the Man of the Match award, broke tackles and made meters before an offload to Hayate Era as the Japanese left after 12 minutes.
Tonga’s fly-half, Patrick Pellegrini, had a good game and put in smart kicks to get behind the Japanese; they were mixing up their direct bruising runs with some innovation.
It was Japan who showed good hands, and it was Fakatava who scored his 5th try in three PNC games, which allowed Lee to slot an excellent conversion - he was a real sniper all match off the kicking tee. In the 2024 PNC he was also the top scorer, and he is well on the way again to winning that accolade. He also made huge meters with the clearance kicks at altitude.
Near the half an hour mark, Tongan talisman and captain Ben Tameifuna took and tapped and went from 5 meters out and powered over to trail 12-14. The opening thirty minutes were excellent but brutally physical.
Then it was the turn for Brave Blossoms captain Warner Dearns to extend the lead, showing some excellent feet to rack up his fourth try in the Championship. The Tongans, in turn, pulled off a great lineout trick play variation to make it 19-21 at the break after Veiseko Poloniati scored.
It was a close game with plenty of innovation. Tonga was playing a team without the shackles of RWC qualification pressure.
In the second half Japan started well and never took their foot off the throttle. An excellent 50/22 and ensuing lineout saw Dylan Riley show their ruthlessness as he dotted down under posts to lead 28-19. The game’s intensity did not drop, and it remained extremely physical and entertaining to watch
Japan added a couple of penalties through Lee as Shuhei Takeuchi continued to showcase his barnstorming runs in the loose play, which resulted in scrumhalf Shinobu Fujiwara scoring and Tonga Afungia was shown a yellow card as Japan pulled away on the scoreboard. Fujiwara kept a high pace attack functioning; he came into the game with the most passes in PNC, and that statistic would not have suffered.
Lee slotted another penalty as the scoreboard reached 41-19 - Japan had now passed 40 points in every game of the PNC this year. Tonga tried to stay in the fight and did score a really good try setup by Pellegrini and scored by John Tapueluelu.
Japan turned defence into attack as they put in a good kick chase, stole the ball, moved the ball wide, and Kenji Sato scored in the corner. At the end of the game, Dylan Riley collected the ball from the restart, rounded a few defenders, put in a kick to chase and was bundled out without the ball leading to a penalty try and a second yellow card for Tonga and a final score of 62-24 - The second half blitz by brave blossoms saw them score 41 points to 5 and run in eight tries in the game - all by different scorers.
MOTM Takeuchi said, "We were able to control the set piece against a physical Tongan team. Next week in the final will be physical again, and we'll do our best to beat Fiji or Canada".
Japan Head Coach Eddie Jones said of the message at halftime, “We needed to defend better around the ruck as we were giving them too much leeway. We added elements to our kicking game in the second half."
