Wales 98 Japan 0

By Editor Paul
November 27 2004

Wales thumped a poor Japanese side in their final Autumn international on Friday night at the Millennium Stadium. Captain Colin Charvis touched down four times to equal Wales's number of tries by an indvidual in one match.

Brent Cockbains late withdrawal forced Michael Owen to move into the second row, allowing Ryan Jones to earn his second start in Welsh colours.

Japan absent of their leading players, with leading clubs withholding their selection, were obviously out of their depth. As early as the tenth minute the floodgates were well and truly opened as the visitors defensive naivety was exploited by three times by a Welsh side bent on playing expansive rugby.

A simple lineout move allowed Charvis to open his and his sides try scoring account after only three minutes. It was a familiar pattern as Tom Shanklin continued his rich vein of try scoring form with a hatrick and Rhys and Williams claimed two each. Mefin Davies, Gethin Jenkins and Gareth Cooper also claimed one each.

Impressively Gavin Henson converted all fourteen scores, to leave Wales two points short of three figures, in front of an impressive 56,380 crowd in a buzzing Millennium stadium.

Henson was involved in Wales's most impressive score of the night, breaking from his twenty two before combing linking up with Tom Shanklin and Kevin Morgan to allow Shane Williams to finish in style.

The real test will be to see if the regions can maintain the impetus laid down by Ruddock and his players when the Heineken cup returns next week.

"I'd give us seven out of 10 for being ruthless, it was a good first half, but we lost our shape in the second. We were a bit loose up front at times, but I told the boys to go out to enjoy themselves and entertain the fans and I think we did that. From a coaching point of view there are plenty of things to be improved upon, but it was an exciting autumn series." (Mike Ruddock, Wales coach)

"I'm enjoying my rugby, these are a great bunch of guys and the team spirit in the camp has just built since the World Cup. There's so much competition, everyone wants to wear that Welsh jersey. It's still disappointing to have narrowly lost our two games this autumn against world-class opposition, but we're all looking forward to the Six Nations now." (Colin Charvis, Wales captain)

Teams:

Wales: R Williams; Luscombe (Morgan, 59), Henson, Shanklin, S Williams; Sweeney, Cooper (Phillips, 71); Jenkins, Davies (S Jones, 56), Dafydd Jones (M Williams, 59), Duncan Jones (A Jones, 27), J Thomas, R Jones (Popham, 70), Charvis (capt), Owen.

Tries: Charvis 4, R Williams 2, Davies, Shanklin 3, Jenkins, Cooper, S Williams 2. Cons: Henson 14.

Japan: Miki (Otao, 29); Kubota, Mukoyama, Motoki, Daimon; Yoshida, Ikeda (Tanaka, 64); Mitsugu Yamamoto, Yamoaka (Masahito Yamamoto, 48) Yamamura (Nishiura, 71) Kiso, Kumagai, Mau, Miuchi.

Referee: T Henning (South Africa).

Attendance: 56,380.