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

Japan host France at the National Olympic Stadium on Saturday morning for the third round of fixtures in this year's Nations Championship tournament.

In their latest outing, the Brave Blossoms fell to a 36-20 defeat against Ireland, while Les Bleus returned to winning ways by claiming a 42-26 victory away to Australia.

Match preview

Having endured a difficult spell prior to the tournament, losing five consecutive matches before narrowly beating Georgia, Japan will be content with how their Nations Championship campaign has panned out so far.

In their opening match, Eddie Jones’s men claimed an impressive 27-10 win over Italy in Tokyo, before only falling short late on against Ireland last weekend, conceding 10 points in the closing stages to take nothing away from the contest.

Despite the defeat, the Brave Blossoms’ position remains promising, currently sat fourth place in the tournament table above Australia and Fiji, while being only a couple of points behind Argentina, who face a difficult test against England this weekend.

Although they have never before beaten France, only managing a draw in an international friendly nine years ago, Japan will be hopeful that they can create a piece of history on Saturday morning and climb even further up the Southern Hemisphere table ahead of their European trips in November.

Following their agonising loss against New Zealand in Christchurch on the opening weekend, France bounced back in emphatic fashion against Australia in their latest Nations Championship bout.

Finding themselves nine points down at the break after a disappointing first half showing, Les Bleus were much improved in the second period, tallying four tries to post a 42-26 win and take the spoils away from Brisbane.

Picking up a winning bonus point down under too, the victory catapulted Fabien Galthie’s men above both Wales and Scotland to second in the Northern Hemisphere table, only trailing Andy Farrell’s Ireland, who have triumphed in both of their outings.

However, having never before tasted defeat against Japan, winning six of their seven encounters with the Brave Blossoms, France will be confident that they can claim back-to-back victories this weekend and jump above the Boys in Green, who face a difficult trip to New Zealand.

Japan Nations Championship form:

Japan form (all competitions):

France Nations Championship form:

France form (all competitions):

Team News

Japan have made a handful of changes to the pack that started against Ireland, with Harry Hockings, Ben Gunter, Jack Cornelsen and skipper Warner Dearns the only forwards to keep their place.

However, there are just the two differences to the hosts' backline as Yuya Hirose and Taira Main are replaced by Samisoni Tua and Kippei Ishida.

Much like their opposition, France have made significant changes to their scrum as Alexandre Roumat, Jefferson Poirot, Regis Montagne and Maxime Lamothe are all introduced.

In the backs, Galthie has opted to keep things the same though, with Maxime Lucu captaining the side from scrum-half, Romaine Ntamack remaining at 10 and Matthieu Jalibert rounding the team off at full-back.

Japan starting lineup:

15 Takuro Matsunaga, 14 Kazuma Ueda, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Samisoni Tua, 11 Kippei Ishida, 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 9 Naoto Saito; 1 Sojiro Otsuka, 2 Hayate Era, 3 Keijiro Tamefusa, 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Dearns, 6 Esei Ha'angana, 7 Ben Gunter, 8 Jack Cornelsen

Replacements:

16 Kenji Sato, 17 Takato Okabe, 18 Izi Sword, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Tiennan Costley, 22 Taira Main, 23 Shunsuke Uenobo

France starting lineup:

15 Matthieu Jalibert, 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Maxime Lucu; 1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 3 Regis Montagne, 4 Florian Verhaeghe, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 6 Lenni Nouchi, 7 Marko Gazzotti, 8 Alexandre Roumat

Replacements:

16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Sipili Falatea, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Killian Tixeront, 22 Paul Graou, 23 Kalvin Gourgues

We say: Japan 12-35 France

Despite defeat last weekend, Japan have given a good account of themselves throughout the course of the tournament so far and made Ireland uncomfortable for much of Saturday's clash.

However, having returned to winning ways against the Wallabies, we think France will pose too much of a challenge for the Brave Blossoms this time around and head top of the Northern Hemisphere table with a bonus-point victory in Tokyo.