Noves’ job in danger as Ishihara grabs draw for Japan

SHINTARO Ishihara crossed with five minutes remaining to earn Japan a famous draw in Paris.

It brings to an end a shambolic autumn for France, leaving head coach Guy Noves fighting for his job after embarrassing 38-18 and 18-17 defeats to New Zealand and South Africa respectively.

In their first game of the autumn, Jamie Joseph’s Japan opened the scoring with a penalty from Yu Tamura after five minutes.

Francois Trinh-Duc levelled matters ten minutes later before Shota Horie grabbed the game’s opening try.

France prop Rabah Slimani hit back on the stroke of half time, which TrinhDuc converted after notching his second threepointer for a half time lead of 13-8.

However, instead of cruising clear, Noves’ side struggled to assert their authority and Timothy Lafaele crossed within two minutes of the restart.

Gabriel Lacroix hit back for Les Bleus with a converted try and the game was poised at 20-15 to France.

Tamura hit back for Japan with his second penalty of the evening before Trinh-Duc stretched France’s lead to 23-15 with little over ten minutes to go.

But the Brave Blossoms would not go quietly and Ishihara crossed after 73 minutes to level the scores.

Both sides showed endeavour to win the game but couldn’t break the line.