Jones backs uncapped Kitahara and three-cap Komura as Japan's fly-half options for Nations Championship

Eddie Jones has selected two largely inexperienced fly-halves for Japan’s November Nations Championship tour, with the Brave Blossoms’ established options at 10 either injured or unavailable for the matches against Wales, England and Scotland.

Honda Heat’s Riku Kitahara, who is yet to earn a Test cap, will compete for the starting role with Toyota’s Shinya Komura, whose only international experience amounts to three caps — the last of which came as a replacement against Georgia in November 2024.

Jones’ hand has been forced by the absence of Seungsin Lee, who was the leading points scorer in world rugby in 2025 and had been Japan’s first-choice 10 for several seasons before suffering an injury in Kobelco Kobe Steelers’ 22-13 Rugby League One Championship final victory over Kubota Spears in May. Meanwhile, Ryunosuke Ito — the 21-year-old university student who was thrown into his first professional match in July’s Southern Hemisphere Series and impressed in a 27-10 win over Italy — will not be released by Meiji University, who require him for the Kanto University Intercollegiate Championship.

Jones also resisted calls to select Kobe Steelers full-back Shunsuke Uenobo and Black Rams Tokyo playmaker Ichigo Nakakusu, instead opting to blood fresh talent — a hallmark of his tenure. Japan handed debuts to more players than any other leading nation in 2025, with 23 in total.

The 35-man squad contains three uncapped players: Kitahara is joined in the backs by Riku Tokita, while Miu Austin Moriyama earns a first call-up among the forwards. That is a notably smaller group of rookies than the 13 uncapped players included in Japan’s Southern Hemisphere Series squad earlier this year.

Japan’s Nations Championship squad for November:

Forwards: Sojiro Otsuka, Yota Kamimori, Sena Kimura, Kenji Sato, Mamoru Harada, Kanato Hirano, Ryosuke Iwaihara, Shuhei Takeuchi, Keijiro Tamefusa, Jack Cornelsen, Michael Stolberg, Warner Dearns, Ruan Botha, Harry Hockings, Ben Gunter, Tiennan Costley, Kanji Shimokawa, Esei Ha’angana, Miu Austin Moriyama.

Backs: Naito Saito, Kenta Fukuda, Shinobu Fujiwara, Shinya Komura, Riku Kitahara, Yuki Ikeda, Samisoni Tua, Dylan Riley, Chisu Lee, Charlie Lawrence, Kippei Ishida, Kazuma Ueda, Riku Tokito, Koga Nezuka, Inoke Burua, Takuro Matsunaga.