Yet despite expectations of a large Welsh win, the Wales camp would be only too aware that upsets thrive in a tournament such as the Rugby World Cup and should anyone have doubted this, the spine-tingling words of ‘Western Samoa’ needed only to be whispered.
In this opening Pool C match in Bloemfontein, Wales secured a seven try triumph against the Japanese. It was Wales’s biggest Rugby World Cup win and a game in which Wales secured their highest number of tries in the final stages of the RWC. Although greatly overshadowed by New Zealand’s 145-17 decimation of the same side 8 days later, Wales achieved their aims and accomplished a pool-match win against the group outsiders; something that they had failed to do in the previous tournament.
Although the score looked comfortable the play certainly wasn’t for the Welsh. Wales put 36 points on the board in the first half but slowed down considerably in the second, only adding more points in a last-gasp push with less than ten minutes of time remaining. Welsh complacency had set in during the second half; it was this complacency which had cost them so dear in the 1991 tournament.
The boot of Neil Jenkins had notched up a nine point lead against Japan after twenty-two minutes, securing three penalty scores. It took a further four minutes for the Welsh to attain their first try of the match. Derwyn Jones won a line-out ball and quickly moved the ball on, with Cardiff pairing Emyr Lewis and Hemi Taylor storming through the midfield. A pass to new captain Mike Hall went awry as he endured an early Japanese tackle, yet referee Efrahim Sklar played advantage. Debutant scrum half Andrew Moore latched onto the loose ball and won the chase to score the try. Although slightly untidy, thanks to Jenkins’s reliable boot adding the extras, Moore’s debut try helped stretch the lead to 16-0.
Just two minutes later Ieuan Evans touched down for his first try of the game, aided by a superb high kick provided by Moore. Jenkins again converted to stretch the lead to 23-0 and shortly after he added another penalty to extend the Welsh tally by a further three. Evans ran in his second try of the game two minutes from time but Jenkins failed to add the additional two points; the Pontypridd fly-half would achieve nine successes from eleven attempts in this match having regained his goal-kicking form. His second miss of the game came after another debutant, 20-year-old Gareth Thomas, crossed the line for his first international try just before the break.
Wales went into the interval with a 36-0 lead. They had shown aggression in attack that Welsh coach Alex Evans had desired of his newly acquired team. This aggression seemed to continue into the second half as Thomas gained his second goal of the match. Jenkins regained his composure and added the conversion, yet this was the last Welsh score for half an hour.
As Wales went off the boil, the determined Japanese side counter-attacked. Tongan-born winger Lopeti Opi scored the first of two tries he would gain in the match, but the Japanese were unable to add the conversion. Wales, despite the slowdown in play, rallied in the last ten minutes of the match to once more stretch the lead and secure a much-needed win. On 74 minutes Thomas, having raced 40 yards downfield, touched down to secure a hat-trick on his Welsh international debut. Thomas became the first Welsh player in 96 years to score three tries on his debut, following Willie Llewellyn’s four-try scoring debut against England in 1899.
Jenkins converted Thomas’s try and repeated the action again a few minutes later as Taylor crossed for another Welsh touchdown. In Wales’s pool match opener Jenkins had chipped in with a Welsh Rugby World Cup finals record of 22 points. Wales led 57-5, yet Japan had the final word as Opi secured his second try in the final minute of the game.
Although the win and scoreline were to be expected, Wales could take heart going into their next and toughest match of the pool stages. The fact that they had won by a great margin, secured seven tries and played with some style would give the Welsh camp confidence in preparation for their daunting task of facing New Zealand just four days later.
