{"id":60433,"date":"2026-07-18T14:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/60433\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T14:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:10:15","slug":"maxime-lucu-leads-france-to-victory-over-japan-with-15-points-in-nations-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/60433\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxime Lucu leads France to victory over Japan with 15 points in Nations Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Matthieu Jalibert and hooker Maxime Lamothe scored two tries each and skipper Maxime Lucu tallied 15 points from five conversions and a try in an influential performance to lead France to a 42-15 win over Japan on Saturday in the Nations Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Japan matched France physically in the first half and trailed 28-15 at halftime but lost touch on the scoreboard after conceding two tries early in the second. France dominated the aerial game, regularly gaining territory and possession from kicks.<\/p>\n

It was a successful three-week tour for the Six Nations champion French, who were coming off a 42-26 win over Australia<\/a> in Brisbane last week after opening the new 12-team tournament with a 34-32 loss to the All Blacks in New Zealand.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had long sequences with the ball despite a very, very hot and humid climate, and so we are now with two victories in this Nations Championship, so yes we\u2019re very satisfied,\u201d France winger Theo Attissogbe said through a translator. \u201cIt was a very, very big fight, but in the end, we\u2019re really happy, to have a second victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Japan finished the first phase of the Nations Championship with consecutive losses to Ireland<\/a> and France after opening the tournament with a 27-10 win over Italy.<\/a><\/p>\n

At the National Stadium in Tokyo, the French opened the scoring in the second minute when hooker Lamothe drove over after a close-range lineout.<\/p>\n

Japan gained a one-point lead with fullback Takuro Matsunaga kicking a penalty goal and then sparking a long-range counter-attacking try from his own quarterline that was finished in the left corner by winger Kippei Ishida in 15th.<\/p>\n

France regained the ascendancy over the next 20 minutes, rebounding with tries to fullback Jalibert in the 19th after sustained forward pressure, which resulted in a yellow card for Japan lock Harry Hockings, and No. 8 Alexandre Roumat in the 23rd.<\/p>\n

Skipper and scrumhalf Lucu darted over after a strong run into contact from his hooker Lamothe and touched down on the half-hour to score France\u2019s fourth try, securing a bonus competition point.<\/p>\n

After narrowly missing a try in the right corner, Japan cut the margin to 13 points with a try four minutes before the break.<\/p>\n

France scored early again in the second half, with Jalibert scoring in the 43rd when he changed running angles and took a short pass on Lucu\u2019s inside shoulder and crossed near the posts.<\/p>\n

Lamothe scored again in the 51st minute, after sustained forward pressure from the big French pack, it was 42-15 and a much bigger margin seemed ominous.<\/p>\n

But Jalibert was yellow carded for a high tackle in the 58th and, although Japan wasn\u2019t able to turn the one-man advantage into a try in the 10 minutes, it stopped France\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n

Japan had a try disallowed in the 63rd and didn\u2019t score in the second half of a hot and humid evening.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP rugby: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/rugby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Matthieu Jalibert and hooker Maxime Lamothe scored two tries each and skipper Maxime Lucu tallied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[39293,3668,39290,13674,4136,8,39292,39288,39269,39289,1493,13695,1050,39291],"class_list":["post-60433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-alexandre-roumat","tag-france","tag-harry-hockings","tag-ireland","tag-italy","tag-japan","tag-kippei-ishida","tag-matthieu-jalibert","tag-maxime-lamothe","tag-maxime-lucu","tag-new-zealand","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-theo-attissogbe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}