The Wallabies are preparing to meet a fast-paced, high-risk Brave Blossoms this weekend in Tokyo, and are expecting a few familiar faces in the Japanese outfit.
Despite being the most high-profile, head coach Eddie Jones is among a heavy Australian contingent in the Japanese ranks.
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In addition to former Wallabies assistant coach Neal Hatley, Australian-born players Ben Gunter, Dylan Riley and Sam Greene have all put on the red and white jersey, the latter having played with Wallabies captain Harry Wilson in their junior days.
There is also Harry Hockings, who has been around the squad for an extended period and becomes eligible to play in November.
However, speaking to the Japanese media yesterday, similar to talk around facing their former boss, Wallabies Jake Gordon and Jeremy Williams were quick to quash any talk of focus on specific Australian-born players who might feature in Jones’ side.
“We've watched quite a lot of tape around the Japanese team,” Gordon said of the side’s preparation.
“What we do know is that they play from anywhere; they like to play a really quick game of rugby. We know they're going to quickly speed up the different sort of areas and risk from anywhere.
“I haven't personally played with them [the Aussie-born Japanese players]. I've played against some of them, played against Sam Greene before.
“He's transitioned really nicely over here, got a really good skill set at 10, big kick, but very dangerous with the ball.
“Some of the guys look like they've done a great job since coming over here but yeah, we're excited to play against them on the weekend.
“We don't want to become individually focused on their team. We see them as a team collectively being really dangerous. If we allow them to get really quick ball and play the way they want to play, it will be a really challenging day for us.”
“We've got to be physical and try to slow the speed of the ruck down,” Williams echoed his halfback.
“It just comes into focusing on us, knowing what our systems are in both attack and defence and just nailing what we want to nail.
“There are a lot of skilled players out there. How do we stop that? I think that's going to be key. We've got to be able to get physical and slow the speed of the ruck down.
“We've got to be able to play the way we want to play.”
While Williams did highlight several Japanese players he’s excited to go up against, the Australian lock kept the Wallabies' own performance front of mind.
“I think for me, in my position, someone like [Warner] Dearns. Very skillful, fast player around the field,” the 20-capped Wallaby added.
“Physical as well. I've watched a few clips on him. Sam Greene, very good player.
“[But] yeah, we're focused on the game. We need to focus on ourselves and put in a really good performance.
“We know what that looks like for us as a team, but what's important is we actually go out there and do it.”
