Japan 31 New Zealand 38
New Zealand kicked off their end-of-year tour with a 38-31 victory over Japan on Saturday but the makeshift All Blacks side were given a mighty scare in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 at Tokyo’s National Stadium.
The visitors played the last 14 minutes a man down after lock Brodie Retallick was sent off for a dangerous clearout and just held on for victory despite a late try from outstanding Brave Blossoms flanker Kazuki Himeno.
A three-try blitz had put New Zealand 21-3 ahead after 32 minutes but Japan, who have never beaten the All Blacks, struck back with two of their own to cut the deficit to four points at half-time.
Hulking winger Caleb Clarke bulldozed his way through the Japan defence soon after the break to restore New Zealand's lead but Japan lock Warner Dearns slashed it back by charging down a Finlay Christie box kick and regathering to score.
All Blacks number eight Hoskins Sotutu barged his way across the line on the hour mark and that proved enough of a cushion even after Retallick was shown a red card in his 99th Test for his clearout on Himeno.
“They’re a really good team and we were coming off a long break and that produced a game that was much tighter than we really wanted,” said All Blacks coach Ian Foster.
“We did some fancy stuff nice but we've probably got to so some basic stuff well.”
Japan, who tackled everything that moved and attacked with every scrap of possession they earned, might take consolation from by far the lowest margin of defeat in their five official Tests against the three-times world champions.
“They kept going right to the end and they really thought they had a chance to win the game,” said a proud Japan coach Jamie Joseph.
Dylan Riley had a hand in both of Japan’s first-half tries, his chip resulting in outhalf Takuya Yamasawa’s score and an outrageous offload out of the tackle sending scrumhalf Yutaka Nagare in on the stroke of half-time.
Samisoni Taukei'aho, a late replacement for the injured Dane Coles at hooker, had a similar impact for the All Blacks with a line break to send Retallick in for the opening try and a long lineout throw that set up winger Sevu Reece's score.
New Zealand's second try in the 26th minute had an element of luck to it with centre Braydon Ennor crossing after what looked like a clear forward pass from Richie Mo'unga to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in the lead-up.
The All Blacks conclude their tour in Britain with matches against Wales, Scotland and England over the next three weeks, while Japan play the English at Twickenham and France in Toulouse next month.
A New Zealand XV selection will play against their Irish counterparts at the RDS next Friday night (7.45pm).
“The key for us is to go to England and try and replicate that performance against a better team,” Joseph said.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022
