The Rugby Championship may be on break this coming weekend but there's still some intriguing over ball action on the go with Japan playing host to a Samoan side that has seen some serious upgrades since World Rugby's latest national eligibility came into play.
Saturday 22 July
Japan v Samoa
Sapporo Dome
07:50
Japan 1/10 | Draw 28/1 | Samoa 6/1
Japan will be looking for a far better showing than they produced against the All Blacks XV over the past fortnight when they take on a Samoan side that is going to feature some serious international talent.
The ‘Brave Blossoms’ build-up for the Rugby World Cup hasn’t exactly gone according to plan with back-to-back defeats to the All Blacks XV illustrating they still have a lot to work on and not much time to get the graft done.
Their first defeat to the New Zealanders came two weeks ago with the Japanese going down 6-38. They were far better in the second fixture, which took place last week, going down 41-27. They will be very pleased with how they moved the ball in that second fixture but their defensive issues will be extremely worrying.
Unlike their opponents, Samoa are yet to play an international fixture this year with their last Test match coming more than a year ago where they beat Fiji 23-20.
As touched upon in the introduction, this Samoan side is loaded with some serious international talent with former All Blacks, Steven Luatua Charlie Faumuina and Lima Sopoaga and ex-Wallaby Christian Leali’ifano in their pre-World Cup squad that has made the trip to Japan.
Sopoaga and Leali’ifano will join an already very handy backline group with former Super Rugby stars, Danny Toala, Nigel Ah Wong, Stacey Ili and Tim Nanai-Williams also part of this squad as well as current Moana Pasifika forward star Miracle Fai’ilagi,, who was the rookie side’s player of the season.
I really think we’ll get a solid game of rugby here and it will be certainly worth the watch as it will be interesting to get an eye on these sides before the World Cup, I reckon Samoa will fall just short of their hosts but keep it within the handicap.
Verdict: Samoa
