2016 Scotland rugby union tour of Japan

In June 2016, the Scotland rugby union team toured Japan, their first tour of the Eastern Asian country since 1989. Scotland went into the tour on the back of two victories and a fourth-place finish in the 2016 Six Nations Championship while Japan entered the series following an eleventh consecutive Asia Rugby Championship title, and a test match against Canada. With the Brave Blossoms new head coach Jamie Joseph not taking over until August 2016, the Sunwolves head coach Mark Hammett acted as caretaker coach for the two-test series.

2016 Scotland rugby union tour of Japan
Coach(es)	Vern Cotter
Tour captain(s)	Greig Laidlaw
Top test point scorer(s)	Greig Laidlaw (28)
Top test try scorer(s)	WP Nel (1)
Summary	P W D L
Total	02 02 00 00
Test match	02 02 00 00
Opponent	P W D L
Japan	2 2 0 0
Tour chronology
Previous tour	Americas & South Africa 2014
Next tour	Australia, Fiji & Singapore 2017

Fixtures

Date and time	Venue	Home	Score	Away
18 June 2016, 19:20 JST (UTC+09)	Toyota Stadium, Toyota, Aichi	Japan	13–26	Scotland
25 June 2016, 19:20 JST (UTC+09)	Ajinomoto Stadium, Chōfu, Tokyo	Japan	16–21	Scotland

Squads

Note: Ages, caps and clubs are as per 18 June, the first test match of the tour.

Japan

On 30 May, caretaker coach Mark Hammett named a 33-man squad for Japan's June tests against Canada and Scotland.^[1]

On 1 June, Kyosuke Horie and Shokei Kin were added to the squad for the Canadian test on 11 June.^[2]

Coaching team:

• Head coach: Mark Hammett (Caretaker)
• Backs coach: Atsushi Tanabe
• Forwards coach: Filo Tiatia
• Defence coach: Nathan Mauger

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Shota Horie	Hooker	(1986-01-21)21 January 1986 (aged 30)	42	Sunwolves
Takeshi Kizu	Hooker	(1988-07-15)15 July 1988 (aged 27)	42	Sunwolves
Futoshi Mori	Hooker	(1988-04-25)25 April 1988 (aged 28)	2	Sunwolves
Kensuke Hatakeyama	Prop	(1985-08-02)2 August 1985 (aged 30)	73	Newcastle Falcons
Keita Inagaki	Prop	(1990-06-02)2 June 1990 (aged 26)	11	Sunwolves
Shinnosuke Kakinaga	Prop	(1991-12-19)19 December 1991 (aged 24)	6	Sunwolves
Masataka Mikami	Prop	(1988-06-04)4 June 1988 (aged 28)	32	Sunwolves
Naohiro Kotaki	Lock	(1992-06-13)13 June 1992 (aged 24)	5	Toshiba Brave Lupus
Hitoshi Ono	Lock	(1978-05-06)6 May 1978 (aged 38)	96	Sunwolves
Kazuhiko Usami	Lock	(1992-03-17)17 March 1992 (aged 24)	9	Sunwolves
Kotaro Yatabe	Lock	(1986-07-29)29 July 1986 (aged 29)	5	Panasonic Wild Knights
Taiyo Ando	Flanker	(1987-08-22)22 August 1987 (aged 28)	2	Sunwolves
Kyosuke Horie	Flanker	(1990-07-11)11 July 1990 (aged 25)	3	Yamaha Júbilo
Yoshiya Hosoda	Flanker	(1987-08-05)5 August 1987 (aged 28)	1	Sunwolves
Shokei Kin	Flanker	(1991-10-03)3 October 1991 (aged 24)	4	NTT Communications Shining Arcs
Hendrik Tui	Flanker	(1987-12-13)13 December 1987 (aged 28)	36	Queensland Reds
Hiroki Yamamoto	Flanker	(1992-11-17)17 November 1992 (aged 23)	4	Toshiba Brave Lupus
Koliniasi Holani	Number 8	(1981-10-25)25 October 1981 (aged 34)	44	Panasonic Wild Knights
Amanaki Mafi	Number 8	(1990-01-11)11 January 1990 (aged 26)	7	Bath
Kaito Shigeno	Scrum-half	(1990-11-21)21 November 1990 (aged 25)	1	Sunwolves
Fumiaki Tanaka	Scrum-half	(1985-01-03)3 January 1985 (aged 31)	54	Highlanders
Keisuke Uchida	Scrum-half	(1992-02-22)22 February 1992 (aged 24)	16	Sunwolves
Kosei Ono	Fly-half	(1987-04-17)17 April 1987 (aged 29)	33	Suntory Sungoliath
Harumichi Tatekawa	Fly-half	(1989-12-02)2 December 1989 (aged 26)	44	Sunwolves
Tim Bennetts	Centre	(1990-08-01)1 August 1990 (aged 25)	3	Canon Eagles
Ryoto Nakamura	Centre	(1991-06-03)3 June 1991 (aged 25)	8	Suntory Sungoliath
Mifiposeti Paea	Centre	(1987-07-06)6 July 1987 (aged 28)	1	Sunwolves
Male Sa'u	Centre	(1987-10-13)13 October 1987 (aged 28)	26	Blues
Yu Tamura	Centre	(1989-01-09)9 January 1989 (aged 27)	36	Sunwolves
Karne Hesketh	Wing	(1985-08-01)1 August 1985 (aged 30)	14	Munakata Sanix Blues
Kentaro Kodama	Wing	(1992-01-28)28 January 1992 (aged 24)	4	Panasonic Wild Knights
Kotaro Matsushima	Wing	(1993-02-26)26 February 1993 (aged 23)	17	Melbourne Rebels
Yasutaka Sasakura	Wing	(1988-08-04)4 August 1988 (aged 27)	1	Sunwolves
Rikiya Matsuda	Fullback	(1994-05-03)3 May 1994 (aged 22)	1	Tokai University
Ryuji Noguchi	Fullback	(1995-07-15)15 July 1995 (aged 20)	4	Tokai University

Scotland

On 9 May 2016, Vern Cotter named a 27-man squad for Scotland's June two-test series against Japan.^[3]

On 16 May, Matt Scott was called up to the squad to replace the injured Alex Dunbar.^[4]

On 19 May, Sean Lamont was called up to the squad to replace the injured Tim Visser.^[5]

On 27 May, uncapped Huw Jones was called up to the squad to replace the injured Finn Russell.^[6]

On 19 June, Gordon Reid was called up to the squad to replace the injured Alasdair Dickinson.^[7]

Coaching team:

• Head coach: Vern Cotter
• Defence coach: Matt Taylor
• Attack/Backs coach: Jason O'Halloran
• Forwards coach: Jonathan Humphreys

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Fraser Brown	Hooker	(1989-06-20)20 June 1989 (aged 26)	15	Glasgow Warriors
Ross Ford	Hooker	(1984-04-23)23 April 1984 (aged 32)	99	Edinburgh
Stuart McInally	Hooker	(1990-08-09)9 August 1990 (aged 25)	7	Edinburgh
Alasdair Dickinson	Prop	(1983-09-11)11 September 1983 (aged 32)	57	Edinburgh
Moray Low	Prop	(1984-11-28)28 November 1984 (aged 31)	32	Exeter Chiefs
WP Nel	Prop	(1986-04-30)30 April 1986 (aged 30)	13	Edinburgh
Gordon Reid	Prop	(1987-03-04)4 March 1987 (aged 29)	17	Glasgow Warriors
Rory Sutherland	Prop	(1992-08-24)24 August 1992 (aged 23)	1	Edinburgh
Jonny Gray	Lock	(1994-03-14)14 March 1994 (aged 22)	23	Glasgow Warriors
Richie Gray	Lock	(1989-08-24)24 August 1989 (aged 26)	56	Castres
Tim Swinson	Lock	(1987-02-17)17 February 1987 (aged 29)	22	Glasgow Warriors
John Barclay	Flanker	(1986-09-24)24 September 1986 (aged 29)	50	Scarlets
John Hardie	Flanker	(1988-07-27)27 July 1988 (aged 27)	10	Edinburgh
Josh Strauss	Flanker	(1986-10-23)23 October 1986 (aged 29)	8	Glasgow Warriors
David Denton	Number 8	(1990-02-05)5 February 1990 (aged 26)	34	Bath
Ryan Wilson	Number 8	(1989-05-18)18 May 1989 (aged 27)	18	Glasgow Warriors
Greig Laidlaw	Scrum-half	(1985-10-12)12 October 1985 (aged 30)	51	Gloucester
Henry Pyrgos	Scrum-half	(1989-07-09)9 July 1989 (aged 26)	17	Glasgow Warriors
Finn Russell	Fly-half	(1992-09-23)23 September 1992 (aged 23)	19	Glasgow Warriors
Ruaridh Jackson	Fly-half	(1988-09-12)12 September 1988 (aged 27)	28	Wasps
Alex Dunbar	Centre	(1990-04-23)23 April 1990 (aged 26)	16	Glasgow Warriors
Peter Horne	Centre	(1989-10-05)5 October 1989 (aged 26)	18	Glasgow Warriors
Huw Jones	Centre	(1993-12-17)17 December 1993 (aged 22)	0	Stormers
Matt Scott	Centre	(1990-09-30)30 September 1990 (aged 25)	34	Edinburgh
Duncan Taylor	Centre	(1989-09-05)5 September 1989 (aged 26)	17	Saracens
Damien Hoyland	Wing	(1994-01-11)11 January 1994 (aged 22)	1	Edinburgh
Sean Lamont	Wing	(1981-01-15)15 January 1981 (aged 35)	104	Glasgow Warriors
Sean Maitland	Wing	(1988-09-14)14 September 1988 (aged 27)	21	London Irish
Tommy Seymour	Wing	(1988-07-01)1 July 1988 (aged 27)	27	Glasgow Warriors
Tim Visser	Wing	(1987-05-29)29 May 1987 (aged 29)	26	Harlequins
Stuart Hogg	Fullback	(1992-06-24)24 June 1992 (aged 23)	43	Glasgow Warriors

Matches

First test

18 June 2016 19:20 JST (UTC+09)

Japan	13–26	Scotland
Try: Horie 8' c Con: Tamura (1/1) 9' Pen: Tamura (2/3) 28', 55'	Report[8]	Try: Penalty try 37' c Nel 41' c Con: Laidlaw (2/2) 38', 43' Pen: Laidlaw (4/4) 4', 15', 19', 62'

Toyota Stadium, Toyota, Aichi[9] Attendance: 24,113 Referee: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)

FB 15 Kotaro Matsushima  15' RW 14 Mifiposeti Paea OC 13 Tim Bennetts IC 12 Harumichi Tatekawa LW 11 Yasutaka Sasakura FH 10 Yu Tamura SH 9 Kaito Shigeno  48' N8 8 Amanaki Mafi OF 7 Shokei Kin BF 6 Hendrik Tui 34' to 44'  78' RL 5 Naohiro Kotaki LL 4 Hitoshi Ono TP 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama  51' HK 2 Shota Horie (c) LP 1 Keita Inagaki Replacements: HK 16 Takeshi Kizu PR 17 Masataka Mikami PR 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga  51' LK 19 Kotaro Yatabe FL 20 Hiroki Yamamoto  78' SH 21 Keisuke Uchida  48' FH 22 Kosei Ono FB 23 Rikiya Matsuda 37' to 47'  15' Coach: Mark Hammett

FB 15 Stuart Hogg RW 14 Tommy Seymour OC 13 Duncan Taylor  66' IC 12 Matt Scott LW 11 Damien Hoyland  56' FH 10 Ruaridh Jackson SH 9 Greig Laidlaw (c) N8 8 Ryan Wilson  64' OF 7 John Hardie BF 6 John Barclay RL 5 Jonny Gray LL 4 Richie Gray  66' TP 3 WP Nel  64' HK 2 Stuart McInally  47' LP 1 Alasdair Dickinson  3' Replacements: HK 16 Fraser Brown  47' PR 17 Rory Sutherland  3' PR 18 Moray Low  64' LK 19 Tim Swinson  66' N8 20 David Denton  64' SH 21 Henry Pyrgos CE 22 Peter Horne  66' WG 23 Sean Maitland  56' Coach: Vern Cotter

Touch judges: Marius Mitrea (Italy) Brendan Pickerill (New Zealand) Television match official: Ian Smith (Australia)

Second test

25 June 2016 19:20 JST (UTC+09)

Japan	16–21	Scotland
Try: Shigeno 20' c Con: Tamura (1/1) 21' Pen: Tamura (3/3) 6', 29', 49'	Report[10]	Pen: Pyrgos (3/4) 2', 15', 25' Laidlaw (4/4) 52', 60', 70', 77'

Ajinomoto Stadium, Chōfu, Tokyo[9] Attendance: 34,073 Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)

FB 15 Rikiya Matsuda  77' RW 14 Male Sa'u OC 13 Tim Bennetts  55' IC 12 Harumichi Tatekawa LW 11 Yasutaka Sasakura FH 10 Yu Tamura SH 9 Kaito Shigeno  61' N8 8 Amanaki Mafi OF 7 Shokei Kin BF 6 Hendrik Tui  60' RL 5 Naohiro Kotaki LL 4 Hitoshi Ono  65' TP 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama  55' HK 2 Shota Horie (c)  60' LP 1 Keita Inagaki  71' Replacements: HK 16 Takeshi Kizu  60' PR 17 Masataka Mikami  71' PR 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga  55' LK 19 Kotaro Yatabe  65' N8 20 Koliniasi Holani  60' SH 21 Keisuke Uchida  61' FH 22 Kosei Ono  55' CE 23 Mifiposeti Paea  77' Coach: Mark Hammett

FB 15 Stuart Hogg RW 14 Tommy Seymour OC 13 Matt Scott IC 12 Peter Horne LW 11 Sean Maitland  79' FH 10 Ruaridh Jackson  57' SH 9 Henry Pyrgos (c)  49' N8 8 Ryan Wilson  44' OF 7 John Barclay  67' BF 6 Josh Strauss RL 5 Jonny Gray LL 4 Richie Gray TP 3 Moray Low  40' HK 2 Stuart McInally  40' LP 1 Rory Sutherland  40' Replacements: HK 16 Fraser Brown  40' PR 17 Gordon Reid  40' PR 18 WP Nel  40' LK 19 Tim Swinson  67' FL 20 John Hardie  44' SH 21 Greig Laidlaw  49' CE 22 Huw Jones  57' WG 23 Sean Lamont  79' Coach: Vern Cotter

Touch judges: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand) Brendan Pickerill (New Zealand) Television match official: Ian Smith (Australia)

Notes:

• Huw Jones (Scotland) made his international debut.
• The 31,392 crowd was a record home crowd for a Japanese rugby international.

Japan warm-up match

On 11 June, Japan played away to Canada in the lead up to the Scottish series.

11 June 2016 15:00 PDT (UTC-07)

Canada	22–26	Japan
Try: Paris 6' m Barkwill 20' c Cudmore 45' m Carpenter 79' m Con: McRorie (1/4) 21'	Report[11]	Try: Kizu 34' c Matsushima 69' c Con: Tamura (2/2) 35', 70' Pen: Tamura (4/4) 11', 40', 51', 76'

BC Place, Vancouver[12] Attendance: 10,250[13] Referee: Federico Anselmi (Argentina)

Team details

FB 15 Matt Evans RW 14 Dan Moor OC 13 Brock Staller IC 12 Nick Blevins LW 11 Taylor Paris  71' FH 10 Pat Parfrey  55' SH 9 Gordon McRorie N8 8 Aaron Carpenter 51' to 61' OF 7 Lucas Rumball  55' BF 6 Kyle Baillie  66' RL 5 Evan Olmstead LL 4 Jamie Cudmore (c)  55' TP 3 Jake Ilnicki  72' HK 2 Ray Barkwill  67' LP 1 Djustice Sears-Duru Replacements: HK 16 Eric Howard  67' PR 17 Tom Dolezel  72' PR 18 Matt Tierney LK 19 Paul Ciulini  55' FL 20 Matt Heaton  55' FL 21 Alistair Clark  66' SH 22 Jamie Mackenzie  55' CE 23 Mozac Samson  71' Coach: Mark Anscombe FB 15 Kotaro Matsushima RW 14 Mifiposeti Paea OC 13 Tim Bennetts  63' IC 12 Harumichi Tatekawa (c) LW 11 Yasutaka Sasakura  76' FH 10 Yu Tamura SH 9 Fumiaki Tanaka  40' N8 8 Kyosuke Horie OF 7 Taiyo Ando  40' BF 6 Yoshiya Hosoda  54' RL 5 Naohiro Kotaki LL 4 Kazuhiko Usami  72' TP 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama  49' HK 2 Takeshi Kizu LP 1 Keita Inagaki Replacements: HK 16 Futoshi Mori PR 17 Masataka Mikami PR 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga  49' LK 19 Kotaro Yatabe  72' FL 20 Shokei Kin  40' SH 21 Kaito Shigeno  40' FH 22 Kosei Ono  63' FB 23 Rikiya Matsuda  76' Coach: Mark Hammett Man of the Match: Djustice Sears-Duru (Canada) Touch judges: Kurt Weaver (United States) Derek Summers (United States) Television match official: David Smortchevsky (Canada)

Notes:

• Matt Heaton (Canada) and Yoshiya Hosoda, Rikiya Matsuda, Mifiposeti Paea, Yasutaka Sasakura and Kaito Shigeno (all Japan) made their international debuts.

Statistics

Key

• Con: Conversions
• Pen: Penalties
• DG: Drop goals
• Pts: Points

Scotland Statistics Name Played Tries Con Pen DG Pts Greig Laidlaw 2 0 2 8 0 28 – – Henry Pyrgos 1 0 3 0 0 9 – – WP Nel 2 1 0 0 0 5 – – John Barclay 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Fraser Brown 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Jonny Gray 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Richie Gray 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – John Hardie 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Stuart Hogg 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Peter Horne 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Ruaridh Jackson 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Moray Low 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Sean Maitland 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Stuart McInally 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Matt Scott 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Tommy Seymour 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Rory Sutherland 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Tim Swinson 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – Ryan Wilson 2 0 0 0 0 0 – – David Denton 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Alasdair Dickinson 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Huw Jones 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Damien Hoyland 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Sean Lamont 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Gordon Reid 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Josh Strauss 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Duncan Taylor 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – Alex Dunbar – – – – – 0 – – Ross Ford – – – – – 0 – – Finn Russell – – – – – 0 – – Tim Visser – – – – – 0 – –

Tour statistics Name Team Tries Con Pen DG Pts Greig Laidlaw  Scotland 0 2 8 0 28 Yu Tamura  Japan 0 2 5 0 19 Henry Pyrgos  Scotland 0 0 3 0 9 Shota Horie  Japan 1 0 0 0 5 WP Nel  Scotland 1 0 0 0 5 Kaito Shigeno  Japan 1 0 0 0 5

See also

• 2016 mid-year rugby union internationals
• Mid-year rugby union tests