Wales avoid relegation from WXV 2 with clinical win over Japan

Wales have finished their WXV 2 campaign on a high with a 19-10 win over Japan at Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town. That result in their final Test of the year has also seen them avoid relegation from the second-tier following two losses earlier in the tournament.

Wales stunned Australia 31-24 at Rodney Parade in the last fixture before facing the same foe in the WXV 2 opener one week later. But, it was a very different story at DHL Stadium with the Wallaroos recording a dominant 37-5 win on September 28^th.

The Welsh looked to bounce back in their round two fixture against Italy, but it couldn’t have started much worse for them with the Azzurri scoring 11 minutes into the contest. Italy ended up taking the win by a slender three-point margin at the end of the 80 minutes.

That set the scene for a grandstand finish for the Welsh. With Japan also searching for their first win of the competition following defeats to hosts South Africa and Scotland, there was always going to be a fair bit of passion and feeling in this contest.

But, it was one-way traffic during the first term as Nel Metcalfe and Kevin Bevan both crossed for first-half tries. SVSN Series star Jasmin Joyce scored Wales’ third after the break to see them take a 19-nil lead after 43 minutes of play.

While Japan hit back with two tries inside the final 20 minutes, the accuracy of Bevan’s goal-kicking boot saw Cymru avoid a realistic chance of an upset late. Wales held on for a nine-point win which means Japan will play in WXV 3 next time the tournament is held.

This weekend, Australia will take on Scotland to determine the winner of WXV 2. Both teams are undefeated from their two starts to date, but the Scots have never beaten the Wallaroos in an international Test from three meetings.

“Coming off the back of two wins themselves so they’ll be feeling pretty confident and pretty sure in what they’re putting out on the field as well,” Australia captain Michaela Leonard told reporters earlier this week.

“We know they’re a really strong side set-piece wise, being a Northern Hemisphere team, Six Nations, they get a lot of that sort of rugby throughout the year.

“(We) know we’re going to have to sure up some of those areas, particularly around the scrum, from last week, and we expect a really physical game.

“Looking at what we’ve been doing well, definitely looking to continue our kick pressure, our connection and the high speed, high tempo game that we’re wanting to play.”

In other results overnight, Samoa recorded an emphatic 46-15 win over Madagascar. Samoa drew their first game of WXV 3 eight-all with the Netherlands before bouncing back with a big 45-17 victory over Fiji in the second round.

As for WXV 1, Ireland recorded their second win of the three-round competition. The women in green beat the USA by 12-points, which follows their shock win over New Zealand in the opening round and a tough loss to Canada last time out.