{"id":74772,"date":"2026-08-15T09:37:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/74772\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:37:52","slug":"wallabies-56-17-japan-5-takeaways-as-australias-big-men-obliterate-brave-blossoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/74772\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies 56-17 Japan: 5 takeaways as Australia’s big men ‘obliterate’ Brave Blossoms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the Wallabies\u2019 56-17 victory over Japan<\/a>, here are our five takeaways from the clash in Townsville.<\/p>\n

Top line<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s clash followed a similar storyline to seven days ago, when the two nations collided in Osaka, with every punch met by a counterpunch. It was the hosts who landed the first blow as Josh Nasser rounded off a wonderful team try in the sixth minute.<\/p>\n

It took just five minutes for Japan to reply, and it came through Australian-born lock Harry Hockings, who punished Ryan Lonergan\u2019s lax clearance kick from the base, charging down the punt and diving on the ball for an easy five-pointer.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies<\/a> went route one, and it paid dividends with Taniela Tupou bundling over from close range. Again, the Brave Blossoms\u2019 reply came through Australia\u2019s inaccuracies as Japan<\/a> stripped the Wallabies of the ball inside the host\u2019s 22, and when the visitors were awarded a penalty, Naoto Saito was quick to tap and dive at Harry Wilson\u2019s feet to score.<\/p>\n

The trend of you score, we score was broken by another Aussie-born Japanese international<\/a> as Dylan Riley ran a sharp line after a well-worked attack from a goal-line drop-out to give his side a 14-17 lead in the final knockings of the first half. However, Tupou would have the final say of the first 40 minutes as the prop bundled his way over the line from short range to score his second of the game and from there, the script was torn up.<\/p>\n

That concluded a ruthless opening half on attack from the Wallabies, who racked up three 22-metre entries and scored three tries, with a forward pass denying Les Kiss\u2019 men a fourth. It also saw the end of the counter-punching as the Wallabies dominated the second half.<\/p>\n

The front-row try-scoring antics continued in the second half with Angus Bell adding his name to the scoresheet, and after replacing Tupou, Wallaby number 1000 Massimo De Lutiis celebrated his debut in style.<\/p>\n

The rookie\u2019s score was a telling point in the game as Australia went on to dominate proceedings with Charlie Cale and Harry Wilson breaking the trend of front-row tries and bloating the scoreline to 49-17.<\/p>\n

It was rather fitting that the final play of the game would see a Wallaby front-rower round of the scoring as Brandon Paenga-Amosa made it 56-17 and saw the Aussies complete a 35-0 second-half romp.<\/p>\n

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Wallabies\u2019 22-metre ruthlessness paired with soft underbelly<\/p>\n

Three entries, three tries and a seven-point-per-22-metre-entry average was just half of the story from the Wallabies\u2019 opening half as Kiss\u2019 charges flexed their ruthlessness with ball in hand but also allowed their soft underbelly to be well and truly exposed.<\/p>\n

As mentioned above, the two matches between these nations have been a punch-and-counterpunch affair, and while Japan deserve credit for capitalising on their opportunities, they were gifted chances by the Wallabies\u2019 inaccuracies.<\/p>\n

One clear difference between the Joe Schmidt Wallabies and Les Kiss is the bravery with ball in hand, particularly from deep inside their own half. It\u2019s high risk that can have high reward, but as we saw today, dire consequences too. Japan\u2019s first two tries perfectly illustrate this.<\/p>\n

Hockings\u2019 charge down and score was a result of Australia playing too deep and getting pushed back near their own try line. Scrum-half Ryan Lonergan then attempted a box-kick clearance but didn\u2019t set the blockers before doing so, making Hockings\u2019 job all the more easier. Ditto for Saito, who took a quick tap after the Wallabies surrendered possession deep in their 22. Even Riley\u2019s try was the result of a poor defensive effort after a rather average goal-line drop-out.<\/p>\n

Kiss will have read the riot act at half-time, and there was a clear improvement overall in the second 40, but similar mistakes against Argentina could be even more severely punished as Japan certainly wasted chances too.<\/p>\n

Still, the positives outweigh the negatives in the second post-Schmidt Test with Australia finishing with a five-point per-22-metre entry average \u2013 a ridiculous conversion rate at international level. Another massive improvement was the penalty count against the Wallabies, who conceded just five throughout the 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

Japan continue upward trajectory<\/p>\n

An accurate and aggressive Wallabies team blew Eddie Jones\u2019 men off the park in the second half as they were completely outplayed in a 35-0 second-half scoreline. However, taking into account the full 160 minutes of Test match rugby over the last week, Japan are showing clear signs of improvement under Jones.<\/p>\n

For 120 minutes, there were just six points between them and Australia with the Brave Blossoms playing the style of rugby that saw them stun the Springboks back in 2015 and saw them reach the Rugby World Cup knockout stages for the first time four years later.<\/p>\n

In Satio and university student Ryunosuke Ito, Japan have a halfback pairing that can trouble the best defences in the world, while locks Hockings and Warner Dearns provide height, muscle and lineout excellence that the team desperately needs.<\/p>\n

Centre Riley is perhaps one of the most slept-on talents, while Faulua Makisi and Ben Gunter provide real ballast in the back row in the absence of Kazuki Himeno.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the front row remains a problem area for the Japanese as the Wallabies managed to put pressure on their scrum and limit the influence of tighthead prop Shuhei Takeuchi, who was outstanding in Osaka. Jones will have learnt a lot about his team in the 160 minutes of the rugby against his home country, with the first 120 providing plenty of positives and the final 40 showing precisely where they are falling short.<\/p>\n

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Healthy loose forward headache<\/p>\n

As for Kiss, the new head coach has a healthy selection dilemma when it comes to his back-row. Starting in the number seven jersey that looked to be sewn onto the skin of Fraser McReight during Schmidt\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

The Queensland Reds star has stamped his mark on the international game over the last few years and is comfortably one of the best openside flankers in the game. However, he now has incredibly stiff competition in the form of Carlo Tizzano, who produced a frankly outrageous performance. The Western Force man finished with three turnovers won, but he pilfered over the ball time and time again at crucial points in the game, taking the venom out of the Japanese attack. Even more impressively, he did that while still staying on the right side of the referee and wasn\u2019t penalised once.<\/p>\n

Rob Valetini was absent today, which gave Charlie Cale the opportunity to shine, and boy did he make the most of it, producing an outstanding performance on both sides of the ball. He dominated contact throughout and was duly rewarded with a try at the back of the scrum.<\/p>\n

With captain Harry Wilson also enjoying another fine day at the office, Kiss is spoilt for choice in the back-row department going forward, which will be needed against Los Pumas and the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie: Performances against the Bulls can \u2019tilt\u2019 All Blacks selections for Springboks Tests<\/a><\/p>\n

A day the front row union will remember fondly<\/p>\n

As much as the Wallabies\u2019 backs created some magical moments today and got the Townsville fans off their feet, today belonged to the big men up front in the gold jersey. Meat pies are a rarity for props, but it was raining tries for the front rowers, with five of the six Wallabies\u2019 front rowers crossing the whitewash against the Brave Blossoms \u2013 Aidan Ross being the exception.<\/p>\n

Hooker Nasser worked his socks off to grab the opener; tighthead Tupou crossed twice in the first half, and early in the second, Bell got in on the action, charging over under the sticks.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most pleasing sight came in the 57th minute as Wallaby number 1000 celebrated his debut with a try of his own. Like Nasser, De Lutiis worked incredibly hard to catch up to the attack after some Carter Gordon brilliance, and the rookie was duly rewarded as he clattered over the line. The smile he was sporting as he shot back to his feet was one of pure joy and summed up a happy day for the front row union. Props to the props, what a day. Whilst the sixth try of the game finally saw a non-front rower score for the Wallabies with Cale muscling his way over, it was all courtesy of the big boys who obliterated the Brave Blossoms\u2019 scrum.<\/p>\n

According to the Stan Sport commentary, it was just the second time in history that the starting front row have all scored a try in a Test match. The first occurred 36 years ago with Ewen McKenzie, Phil Kearns and Tony Daly dotted down against the USA.<\/p>\n

To put the cherry on top, Paenga-Amosa grabbed the eighth Wallabies try of the game, the sixth scored by a member of the front row union.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Loose Pass: The \u2018glaring\u2019 Wallabies issue Les Kiss must address while all ends well for Nice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the Wallabies\u2019 56-17 victory over Japan, here are our five takeaways from the clash in Townsville. Top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[923,3651,2772,17085,8,173,33],"class_list":["post-74772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-nihon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74772","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=74772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}