Leading into a highly anticipated Nations Championship test match this Saturday in Newcastle, Australia, two national rugby sides have finalized their match-day rosters, with Ireland rolling out a heavily reshuffled starting lineup and Japan retaining a standout young playmaker who turned heads in his international debut last week.
Only six players who featured in Ireland’s narrow 33-31 win over the Wallabies in Sydney last Saturday will retain their starting spots for this week’s neutral-venue clash, played roughly an hour’s drive north of Sydney. The holdovers are backs Stuart McCloskey, Jamie Osborne and Jimmy O’Brien, plus forwards Tom O’Toole, James Ryan and Jack Conan. Irish head coach Andy Farrell announced a total of nine changes to the starting 15, headlined by lock Tadhg Beirne’s first appointment as captain of the senior national side.
The match will also mark a string of firsts for emerging Irish talent: back-rower Sean Jansen is set to earn his first senior start at the number 8 position, while three other young players — Billy Bohan, Sam Illo and Bryn Ward — will all join the match-day squad for the first time, with Bohan and Illo in line to make their international debuts as replacement forwards. Farrell expressed clear enthusiasm for the opportunity to blood new talent against Japan, noting that even one debut is a special milestone, and four first-time call-ups makes this encounter all the more meaningful.
For the Japanese side, head coach Eddie Jones has opted to keep faith in 21-year-old university flyhalf Ryunosuke Ito, who made his maiden international appearance last week and delivered an impressive performance in Japan’s 27-10 victory over Italy in Tokyo. Jones, who returns to the sideline this week after serving a four-match suspension, will keep Ito in the starting lineup alongside starting halfback partner Naoto Saito. Speaking about the young playmaker, Jones emphasized that Ito will inevitably face growing pains at the international level, but the entire squad is prepared to support his development, and the coaching staff is encouraging him to play his natural game. Japan made just one adjustment to its starting roster from last week’s win, with Taira Main stepping in to replace Kippei Ishida on the left wing.
The full confirmed rosters for both sides are as follows:
Ireland starting XV: Jamie Osborne; Jimmy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Ciarán Frawley, Craig Casey; Tom O’Toole, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson, Tadhg Beirne (captain), James Ryan; Jack Conan, Nick Timoney, Sean Jansen. Irish reserves: Tom Stewart, Billy Bohan, Sam Illo, Cormac Izuchukwu, Bryn Ward, Nathan Doak, Harry Byrne, Bundee Aki.
Japan starting XV: Takuro Matsunaga; Kazuma Ueda, Dylan Riley, Yuya Hirose, Taira Main; Ryunosuke Ito, Naoto Saito; Takato Okabe, Mamoru Harada, Shuhei Takeuchi, Harry Hockings, Warner Dearns (captain), Ben Gunter, Kanji Shimokawa, Jack Cornelsen. Japanese reserves: Hayate Era, Sojiro Otuska, Keijiro Tamefusa, Michael Stolberg, Michael Leitch, Tiennan Costley, Itsuki Kamimura, Sam Greene.