Re-Wind: Wales’ tours of Japan - from the '70s Golden Era to an upset defeat in 2013

As Matt Sherratt takes his squad to Japan to face Eddie Jones’ side this summer, Ruck Rugby takes a look back at all of the pair’s last six meetings in Japan ahead of Wales’ summer tour of The Land of the Rising Sun.

In the six games played between 1975 and 2013, Wales have only lost once in Japan, 2013 – the same year as a British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.

After the pair for the first time in 1973 at the Cardiff Arms Park, it was Wales’ tour to Asia, and, more importantly, their first trip to Japan, where they met again. This occurred two years later, in 1975, when they played two matches in Osaka and Tokyo.

After a warm-up match against Japan B ended 34-7 to the tourists, Wales entered the first of two Test matches full of dragon fire. The following two fixtures featured heavy traffic in favour of Wales, as the 56-12 win in Osaka stamped out any Japanese belief of an upset. The final match was a thunderous 82-6 win for Wales, in what stands as one of the nation's biggest overseas victories.

On that tour, no caps were awarded by the Welsh Rugby Union. Both meetings finished brutally for Japan as Wales, skippered by Mervyn Davies, scored 138 points respectively in the meetings compared to the Brave Blossoms’ mere 18.

The next time Wales would tour the Far East to take on Japan was in 2001. This was Wales’ solely first tour of the nation.

Like many of the tours of the country, which Welsh rugby fans have grown accustomed to, there was a mixture of youth and experience on show.

Wales won both Tests (64-10 & 53-30), despite also losing on Japanese soil for the first time against Suntory Sungoliath, now known as Tokyo Sungoliath, in a warm-up game in 2001.

Twelve years later, it was Robin McBryde’s turn to lead a shadow squad with head coach Warren Gatland and 15 Wales players on the Lions tour and other senior personnel rested.

This tour of Japan fell in the same year as a British and Irish Lions tour of Australia and was also the first Test series between the pair since 2001. The encounters in both Osaka and Tokyo were the first time a tier one nation had been in Japan since Italy in 2006

Wales again used the tour as one for handing out experience for players. Captained by Bradley Davies, with Andrew Coombes who was the oldest touring member at 28-years-old. They were ‘old heads’ of a 23 match-day squad which had eight debutants. In fact it was a side which featured a combined total of 100 caps with skipper Davies having 38 that played in Osaka on June 8 2013.

With both Warren Gatland and Rob Howley absent, McBryde oversaw his side claim a 22-18 victory. The boots of a young Dan Biggar and Rhys Patchell were instrumental in the narrow victory.

However, a week later at Tokyo’s famous Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Japan finally found a breakthrough in the second Test.

For the first time, Japan were 23-8 victors, and this meant the Series would end in a draw as they recorded their first ever win over Wales.

Wales open their two-Test campaign at Mikuni World Stadium, Kitakyushu on July 5. A city which welcomed Wales during the 2019 Rugby World Cup with open hands.

It was a sellout crowd of 15,000 which packed the stands for a training session, which had in the background a beautiful rendition of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, which the locals had passionately learnt.

However friendly Wales’ relationship is with Japan and more importantly Kitakyushu, they’ll have to park that as Sherratt’s men have a job to do as they’ll look to pick-up their first win since the 2023 World Cup in France.