Saito takes Japan captaincy as Jones makes five changes for Canada Centenary Test

Eddie Jones has named Naoto Saito as captain and made five changes to Japan’s starting XV for Saturday’s Centenary Test against Canada at the Denka Big Swan Stadium in Niigata City, three weeks after the Brave Blossoms were beaten 56-17 by Australia.

The most significant alteration is the absence of lock and regular skipper Warner Dearns, who misses out entirely. Saito, who steps up from scrum-half to wear the armband, has captained Japan twice before — against Uruguay and England in 2024. Jack Cornelsen comes in to partner Harry Hockings in the second row.

The other two changes in the pack see Mamoru Harada replace Hayate Era at hooker and Kanji Shimokawa come in for Ben Gunter at blindside flanker. In the backs, Yuya Hirose takes the inside-centre jersey from Shunsuke Uenobo, while Inoke Burua is preferred to Yoshitaka Yazaki on the right wing.

Saturday’s fixture marks the centenary of the founding of the Japan Rugby Union, and the Brave Blossoms will be looking to celebrate with a first win in five matches. Japan have dominated recent meetings with Canada, recording a then-record 55-point haul in the 2024 Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup before going one better with a 57-15 victory the following year — their largest-ever winning margin against the Canadians, surpassing the 38-point gap from a 46-8 win in 2001.

The Denka Big Swan Stadium in Niigata is hosting Japan for only the second time in history, 18 years after the Brave Blossoms ran out 75-29 winners against Hong Kong China at the same venue.

For Canada, No.8 Lucas Rumball extends his own record as the most-capped Canadian captain to 37 matches. The 67-cap veteran is the only player in the touring squad to have made more than 50 Test appearances.

Japan XV: 1 Takato Okabe, 2 Mamoru Harada, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 4 Jack Cornelsen, 5 Harry Hockings, 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 8 Faulua Makisi, 9 Naoto Saito (capt), 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 11 Haruto Kida, 12 Yuya Hirose, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Inoke Burua, 15 Takuro Matsunaga.

Replacements: 16 Kenji Sato, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Takumi Inaba, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Esei Haangana, 21 Tiennan Costley, 22 Kenta Fukuda, 23 Sam Greene.