Japan team to face South Africa - Eddie Jones names squad for Wembley clash with Springboks

Japan head coach Eddie Jones has named his squad to take on South Africa, as London's iconic Wembley Stadium provides the back-drop to this Autumn Nations Series match-up. This clash between the Brave Blossoms and the Boks presents the intriguing touch-line clash between Jones and his Springboks counterpart Rassie Erasmus.

On paper, South Africa are the heavy favourites ahead of this exhibition Test at the home of English football. The Boks retained their Rugby Championship crown for the first time in their history this past month, with a landmark drubbing against the All Blacks in Wellington, setting a record margin of defeat for New Zealand at 43-10.

Whilst the Springboks were proven to be mortal with a two Rugby Championship losses throughout the latest campaign (Round 1 vs Australia and Round 3 vs New Zealand), Rassie's men showed relentless grit to retain their crown with a delightful double-header of dominance over Argentina to close out their campaign. The Springboks secured the title at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, and return to London for their opening match of a Northern tour against France, Italy, Ireland and Wales.

Whilst South Africa are rightly favourites, history has presented one unforgettable Japan victory over the Springboks, as the 'Brighton Miracle' of the 2015 Rugby World Cup lives long in the memory of Brave Blossom fans. Eddie Jones was the mastermind behind the 34-32 victory at the American Express Stadium, with this re-match some 10 years later taking place just 81 miles north of Brighton football club.

Japan enter the Autumn Internationals following a mixed bag of form upon their recent Test match outings. Eddie Jones’ men hosted Wales for a two-match series throughout the Summer, for an overall drawn series at 1-1. This tour witnessed the end of Wales’ arduous 18-match losing run, yet there were plenty of positives for Japan to take away from a solid shift against a Tier One nation. Japan then finished runners-up to Fiji in the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup, after picking up wins over the USA and Canada.

15 Yoshitaka Yazaki (Waseda University)

14 Kippei Ishida (Canon Eagles)

13 Dylan Riley (Saitama Wild Knights)

12 Charlie Lawrence (Sagamihara Dynaboars)

11 Tomoki Osada (Saitama Wild Knights)

10 Lee Seung-sin (Saitama Wild Knights)

9 Shinobu Fujiwara (Kubota Spears)

8 Michael Leitch (c) (Brave Lupus)

7 Kanji Shimokawa (Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath)

6 Ben Gunter (Saitama Wild Knights)

5 Warner Dearns (Brave Lupus)

4 Jack Cornelsen (Saitama Wild Knights)

3 Shuhei Takeuchi (Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath)

2 Kenji Sato (Saitama Wild Knights)

1 Kenta Kobayashi (Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath)

16 Shodai Hirao (Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath)

17 Ryosuke Iwaihara (Canon Eagles)

18 Keijiro Tamefusa (Kubota Spears)

19 Tyler Paul (Kubota Spears)

20 Faulua Makisi (Kubota Spears)

21 Kenta Fukuda (Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath)

22 Sam Greene (Shizuoka Blue Revs)

23 Tiennan Costley (Kobelco Kobe Steelers)