Preview: Australia vs. Japan - prediction, team news, lineups

Australia welcome Japan to the Queensland Country Bank Stadium on Saturday morning for their second of seven friendly fixtures between this year’s Nations Championship fixtures.

In what was a closely fought encounter right up until the final whistle, the Wallabies claimed a narrow 35-32 win when these sides met in Osaka last week.

Match preview

Heading into July’s Nations Championship fixtures, Australia were on a torrid run of form, losing each of their previous four matches and seven of the last eight, only beating Saturday’s opposition over that stretch.

However, facing a difficult set of opening tournament fixtures, the Wallabies will be content to have earned eight points from their three home games, placing them third in the Southern Hemisphere table ahead of November’s return matches.

Despite tasting defeat in their opening two bouts against Ireland and France, Australia were much improved from their prior run of matches and finishing the home stretch of matches with a thumping 57-10 victory versus Italy, new boss Les Kiss will still be looking for his men to challenge the big boys heading into the away fixtures.

Having never lost against Japan and winning each of the previous seven encounters between the sides, including a narrow 35-32 victory in Higashiosaka last week, the Wallabies are certainly the favourites heading into Saturday’s match.

Although they had the perfect start to their Nations Championship campaign by beating Italy 27-10 at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in their opening match, Japan finished their home fixtures placed fifth in the Southern Hemisphere table, sat only above Fiji who are yet to claim a point in this year’s tournament.

Following their impressive victory over Gli Azzuri, the Brave Blossoms faced Ireland and France in their remaining home matches, but despite impressing for much of their contest with the former especially, Eddie Jones’s men proved to be no match for either Northern Hemisphere heavyweight.

As a result of those defeats, Japan find themselves with just two wins over their previous nine matches and have fallen outside of the top 10 places in the World Rugby Rankings with both Wales and Italy climbing above them.

If they are to halt their recent woes, the Brave Blossoms will have to write history on Saturday morning by winning away from home against a side that are above them in the World Rankings for the first time since 2015, when they claimed their historic 35-32 victory against South Africa at Brighton’s American Express Community Stadium.

Australia form (all competitions):

Japan form (all competitions):

Team News

Josh Nasser and captain Harry Wilson are the only players in the Australia pack that keep their starting place from last weekend's match in Osaka, with Angus Bell, Lachlan Shaw and Carlo Tizzano among those to be introduced.

However, across the backline the Wallabies have made just two changes, with Isaac Henry replacing Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii at outside centre and Carter Gordon coming in for Declan Meredith at fly-half.

There are just two differences to the Japan scrum from last time out as Harry Hockings and Tiennan Costley replace Jack Cornelsen and Kanji Shimokawa at second row and openside-flanker respectively.

Amongst the backs, Jones has withdrawn Taira Main, Samisoni Tua and Kazuma Ueda from the starting lineup, instead opting for Yoshitaka Yazaki, Shunsuke Uenobo and Haruto Kida.

Australia starting lineup:

15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Isaac Henry, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Harry Potter, 10 Carter Gordon, 9 Ryan Lonergan; 1 Angus Bell, 2 Josh Nasser, 3 Taniela Tupou, 4 Lachlan Shaw, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6 Charlie Cale, 7 Carlo Tizzano, 8 Harry Wilson

Replacements:

16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Massimo De Lutiis, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Fraser McReight, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Filipo Daugunu

Japan starting lineup:

15 Takuro Matsunaga, 14 Haruto Kida, 13 Shunsuke Uenobo, 12 Dylan Riley, 11 Yoshitaka Yazaki, 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 9 Naoto Saito; 1 Takato Okabe, 2 Hayate Era, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Deans, 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Tiennan Costley, 8 Faulua Makisi

Replacements:

16 Mamoru Harada, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Izi Sword, 19 Jack Cornelsen, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Itsuki Kamimura, 22 Samisoni Tua, 23 Kazuma Ueda

We say: Australia 34-12 Japan

Having a considerable number of friendly fixtures between now and the resumption of the maiden Nations Championship tournament, Australia will be wanting to rediscover their best from, which they may well have started doing with victory at the Hanazono Rugby Stadium last weekend.

Although Japan showed on home turf that they can cause problems for Kiss's men, we think that the 61-year-old will continue his winning start as Wallabies boss with a convincing victory in Townsville on Saturday morning.