Enough of that talking craic.
These Japanese lads meant business.
Half-time in Twickenham and things couldn’t have been going much better for the Japanese. 15-10 they led Eddie Jones’ side and they’d played all the rugby too.
Ryoto Nakamura skipped past England defenders like they weren’t even there after 22 minutes and that brought the Japanese crowd to their feet. They were beginning to dream now.
Back row Michael Leitch dotted down a couple of minutes later from the right touchline after some shocking defending from England and their dreams were becoming a little bit more real.
The referee blew for the half-time whistle and these lads were pumped. They stormed in under the tunnel, the chests pushed out and their shoulders back.
Maybe they were a little bit too pumped.
They’d put some amount of energy into that first half with men like Sakate and Van der Walt in particular hurling themselves into, on top of and all around anything that moved in an England jersey.
Time for a breather. Relax lads.
Rather than relaxing and devising a plan to do in the second half what they did in the first, they were back out onto the field after spending less than ten minutes in the dressing room.
They were out on the Twickenham pitch five minutes early and they were lining out for lineouts and they were carrying out set-piece moves.
The Sky Sports commentators weren’t the only ones surprised by this tactic from the Japanese.
In the end, it didn’t work out too well for them with England turning on the style in the second half. The Japanese, in contrast didn’t even register a score with England running out 35-15 winners.
