The Fort Worth Press - Japan's young guns excite Jones in Nations Championship

Japan took one win and two defeats from their southern hemisphere series games in the inaugural tournament, beating Italy and losing to Ireland and France.

Jones used the tournament to blood several young players including some who are still at university, such as fly-half Ryunosuke Ito, prop Sojiro Otsuka and utility back Shunsuke Uenobo.

He was rewarded with a series of assured performances that he hopes his team can build on with just over a year until the World Cup in Australia.

"That sort of talent, if we can keep developing it, if we can work with the universities to make sure they keep getting high-performance training and exposure at the highest level, we don't know how good those players can be," Jones said after Japan's 42-15 defeat to France on Saturday.

"There's some really positive signs for those young players and we should be so proud of them."

Ito started all three games at fly-half and gave a string of mature performances alongside experienced scrum-half Naoto Saito.

Otsuka was part of a youthful front row that started Saturday's 42-15 defeat to France in Tokyo.

The 22-year-old scored a try late in the first half and Jones was effusive in his praise.

"The kid is an amateur player, he's played three games of senior rugby, I thought he was unbelievable tonight," said Jones.

"You throw in Ito there, who again has played three games of senior rugby, I thought those two guys performed against a quality French team, absolutely outstanding."

- 'Massive growth' -

Japan are back in action with two Tests against Australia in August, taking on the Wallabies in Osaka before travelling to Townsville for the second game a week later.

They then play in the Pacific Nations Cup and face Fiji in a Test in Tokyo before resuming their Nations Championship campaign in Europe in November.

Japan flanker Ben Gunter said the new tournament had been beneficial for Japan.

"We need to play the best teams to be better, there's no point us playing teams that we can easily beat," he said.

"We need to play the best to become the best, that's the growth in our game.

"There is massive growth there and that's what makes us so excited about playing for Japan and playing in this competition," he added.

The defeat against France gave Japan plenty to work on, with Jones saying their opponents "convincingly won" in the maul and in the aerial battle.

The coach said the game had been "a great lesson for us" and vowed to come back stronger.

"They scored five of their six tries from the maul, and then they convincingly won the battle in the air," he said.

"With the shorter stature of our wingers, we've got to find a way to compete in that area."

M.T.Smith--TFWP