Japan head coach Jamie Joseph has hailed his side’s improvements after their 69-31 loss to New Zealand at Tokyo’s Ajinomoto Stadium.
The venue will play host to the opening match of the World Cup and saw the Brave Blossoms score their record number of points against the All Blacks.
“We are obviously disappointed with the loss but I am not disappointed with the intent of my team,” Joseph, a former All Black himself, told Reuters.
“That we scored five tries against the All Blacks is a sign that we have improved, especially against the best team in the world.
“We still got a long way to go until the World Cup and until we get our game to a level where we can beat tier-one teams.”
While the Tokyo crowd were treated to some nice tries, they were also witness to some slack defending on the part of the home side. But Joseph was instead focusing on the fact that he thought his team could have scored more tries were it not for them kicking the ball away at times which he put down to a lack of experience.
“We kicked the ball too much and we should have kept the ball in hand to apply pressure that way,” Joseph said.
“This comes down to a little bit of inexperience.”
Meanwhile, All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen was also impressed by Japan’s performance.
“Japan are getting better and better all the time,” said Hansen.
“Anybody that came to the game today will have enjoyed what they saw from Japan; a bit of razzle-dazzle, quite a bit of physicality at times.
“They are trying to play a form of rugby that suits them and if you get it wrong they will hurt you.”