The enthralling match, played out at Stade Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux, resulted in the teams sharing the spoils: a feat that last occured in the inaugural Rugby World Cup when Scotland held the French at twenty points apiece.
Japan took the lead with a try in the twelfth minute from Kosuke Endo and despite phase after phase of Canadian attack the score remained at 5-0 at the interval break.
Shortly after the resumption of the game, Canada hooker Pat Riordan crossed the Japanese line after sustained attacking from the Cannucks. To their credit, the Japanese defence held firm but as they were continually deprived of possession, Canada were able to increase their points haul and break the 5-5 deadlock 65 minutes in.
An unmarked Dth Van Der Merwe took full advantage of a cross-field kick from his skipper Morgan Williams, and was able to cross the line unmarked; the conversion took the scores to 12-5. Japan rallied in the closing stages of the match but were unable to penetrate the Canadian whitewash until deep into injury time; Koji Taira finally crossing to set up a nail-biting finish. Fly half Shotaro Onishi held his nerve to calmly slot the oval betwen the uprights to give Japan the well-deserved 12-12 result.
Japan Coach John Kirwan commented on his team’s performance, ”Technically that wasn’t one of our best performances but I can’t fault our courage in any way. We’ll definitely walk away from this World Cup with a lot of respect after that.”
The draw signals the end of Japan’s record streak of thirteen successive Rugby World Cup defeats. Meanwhile, Canada remain winless in the 2007 tournament, with their remaining Pool B encounter against the Australians to be played out on Saturday September 29th.
