Very disappointing, the quarter-finalists of the last edition came up against the iron English defense, against whom they lost this Sunday evening (34-12). It must be said that their clumsiness in attack made the XV de la Rose a lot easier… “We created a lot of chances and the players respected the game plan, but we made too many mistakes,” admitted press conference Japanese coach Jamie Joseph. We cannot afford it in the face of such an adversary. England put a lot of pressure on us, but at times I thought we just needed to capitalize on those opportunities and we couldn’t do it. England are an experienced team on the international stage, one of the best in the world, and they were able to make the difference in the end.
Before continuing: The core of our team is really strong, we can count on good leaders, our team has a lot of experience, but when you have these opportunities, you have to exploit them. Beaten but not defeated the Japanese who will play part of their qualification against Samoa on September 28. “It’s a disappointment, as the boys had put a lot of effort into preparing for this match. They can’t work harder than they already do, but they can still improve. We can learn lessons from this match for the next one against Samoa, which will be a different story.”