Leitch has big plan for Japan

Preview

Japan v Chile Today.

Kick-off 12pm

AHEAD of their opening World Cup encounter against Chile today, Japan back row Michael Leitch feels his side can go all the way in the tournament.

Hosts in 2019, Japan beat Ireland and Scotland to qualify for the quarter-finals before losing to South Africa.

Since then, Japan are on a dismal run of just four wins in their 18 Tests and have fallen down the World Rugby rankings to 14th, only above today’s opponents Chile in pool D, who are 22nd. But 34-yearold back row Leitch, who is playing at his fourth World Cup, describes the current squad as “the best Japan has ever seen”.

Leitch said: “We want to do the same as 2019 but better. We’re looking at winning the World Cup. Anything can happen, red cards can happen, so our focus is on playing against Chile, England, Samoa, then Argentina and see who we face after that. Our intention is to win the World Cup.”

Rookie flanker Kanji Shimokawa makes his first start while fellow back row Pieter Labuschagne is suspended.

Chile are the lowest ranked team in France but showed fight in their qualifying pool in Montevideo where they beat Brazil and lost to Uruguay 15-10.

Skippered by Doncaster blindside Martin Sigren, Los Condores qualified via the play-offs with a 5251 aggregate victory over USA. Sigren says it hasn’t been easy leading his side to their first World Cup.

“It was not until 2021 that we were getting paid at all,” he said. “We still don’t get paid even close to enough to be able to live on so it took a huge sacrifice to get where we are.”