Davies’ drop of magic spares Wales blushes
Credit to young Sam Davies, because his dropped goal with 10 seconds left was nervelessly and brilliantly converted and deserved all the cheers it received in this packed arena. Yet thank goodness Wales did not have the cheek to celebrate this victory. In truth, it felt more like a defeat, as these scares so often do for the Dragons in the third of their four autumn Tests.
Same old story. Wales make loads of changes – 10 in this instance – against the supposed minnows and then proceed to make even more mistakes. Whatever pride they regained against Argentina following the opening day walloping against the Wallabies, they threw away in this dire performance that once again exposed their attacking weaknesses. Japan should have won.
Indeed, if Fumiaki Tanaka had not missed a penalty in front in the 67th minute, Davies would have been taking his aim between the posts in the dying seconds merely searching for the draw. Japan were at full strength when beating South Africa in last year’s World Cup, but here were missing some of their stars based in Europe and their inexperience is best summed up in the fact that five of the pack had won two caps or fewer.
This would have been beyond embarrassing for Rob Howley and his staff and, even though the Springboks were sensationally beaten by Italy yesterday, they have to raise themselves several notches merely to compete next Saturday.
Warburton correctly praised Davies’s composure saying: “It takes a lot of guts to do that especially on his second cap. Had Japan won I don’t think we could have had any complaints.” But he also declared the sweetly-struck, leftfooted match-winner to be a “jail-outof-free card”. It was nothing of the sort. Expect Howley, the stand-in head coach, and Wales to come under intense scrutiny in the build-up to South Africa – a game which, after the stunning upset in Florence, the support will now expect to win – and their appalling inability to transfer possession and territory into points.
“Japan were the better team and deserved to win”,’ Howley said. “It’s relief more than frustration. Japan were the better team and they deserved to win. Throughout the game we fuelled their enthusiasm.”
Wales started sluggishly, going down to 14 men for 10 minutes when Liam Williams cynically obstructed Akihito Yamada after he chipped through, but when Dan Lydiate went over, there was the chance to pull away. On his 59th international appearance, this was Lydiate’s first try and was set up by a wonderfully-flighted pass by Gareth Anscombe, making his first outing for Wales at outside-half. A fine footballer with all the skills, Anscombe seemed to be in his element early on. But, after Jamie Roberts had bulldozed his inexorable way across, Anscombe committed a horrid error.
Perhaps it was the over-confidence produced by his rousing opening, but his attempt of a basketball pass to nobody in particular was plain daft. In his own half, Yamada only had to pick it up and run his disbelieving way between the posts. Yet again, Wales were struck by white-line fever but, in their desperation to be creative, they were instead destructive. The forwards were dominant in both the set-piece and loose, yet they could not begin to highlight this superiority on the scoreboard. That is their curse at the moment. Wales surely have plenty of cutting edge in that back line, so it remains a mystery as to why they seem so blunt for such long periods. Alun-Wyn Jones had clearly had enough of the profligate dancers in behind.
In the 52nd minute, the talismanic lock, burst through, shrugging off a few would-be tacklers, before handing it over to Sam Warburton, that other Welsh stalwart, to crash over.
Japan hit back with game’s best try in a beautiful passing movement that should thoroughly humiliate their redshirted counterparts when they come to rewind the videos. Kenki Fukuoka was at the end of this fleet-handed masterclass and when Tamura converted their deficit was only four points.
Tamura then yanked the chance to bring it back to within one, with his only missed kick of the contest. By now Wales were relying on Halfpenny’s accuracy from the tee to struggle home. In contrast, the visitors were intent on touching down and when the replacement Amanaki Lotoahea ran in the pass from the magnificent No 8, Amanaki Lelei Mafu, the visions of Brighton came tantalisingly into focus. Tamura levelled it up with four minutes left but, fortunately for Howley, he had brought on a courageous 23-year-old.