Jun 11 (Japan Times) - Japan's pace got the better of Romania’s brawn on Saturday as the Brave Blossoms downed the Oaks 33-21 at a packed Egao Kenko Stadium.
With Michael Leitch and Fumiaki Tanaka showing all their experience and Ryuji Noguchi and Jumpei Ogura highlighting the growing competitiveness of Japan's young players, the Brave Blossoms were in a different class for about 50 minutes.
Though as coach Jamie Joseph pointed out, the final 30 minutes belonged to the visitors as Japan's discipline faltered and its game fell off the pace, before it regrouped to prevent any further scores.
On a hot and muggy day in Kyushu, Japan took awhile to warm up and some sloppy mistakes allowed Romania to take an early lead with Florin Vlaicu banging over penalties from 48 and 30 meters out.
But the hosts slowly played themselves into the game as they upped the level of tempo led by Tanaka.
It was a quick line-out from the scrumhalf in the 12th minute that eventually saw the ball in the hands of Timothy Lafaele and his inch-perfect grubber kick was picked up by Akihito Yamada, who sprinted over from 35 meters out.
Ogura added the extras from out wide and then slotted over a brace of penalties as Japan went 13-6 up with 23 minutes on the clock.
