Canon Eagles vs Blue Bulls

The Vodacom Blue Bulls comprehensively outplayed hosts Canon Eagles in Tokyo on Friday, beating them 50 / 3. The visitors dominated all phases of play and scored 8 tries in total.

Comment from Vodacom Blue Bulls camp after the match:

A special word of gratitude to the Players, staff and management of the Canon Eagles, and especially the friendly people of Machida, for their amazing hospitality. Here’s to great friendships and relationships formed.

Match report from the Japan Times:

South Africa’s Blue Bulls gave Japanese rugby a reminder of just where it stands Friday night as the Currie Cup side hammered Canon Eagles 50 / 3 at Machida Athletic Stadium.

Those in the stadium on a hot and humid evening saw the Eagles play bravely but with their forwards giving away 7 kg and 9 cm per man and their backs 13kg and 9 cm, it was always going to be a long night.

And so it proved as the Blue Bulls dominated possession and territory – though the Eagles, to their credit, did make them work hard in the heat.

“It was a hard fought game and we really enjoyed it,” said Blue Bulls captain Lappies Labuschagne.

Tries by Deon Stegmann and Dean Greyling, both of which were converted by former Ricoh Black Ram player, Louis Fouché, saw the Bulls race away to a 14 / 0 lead, as Canon struggled with the intensity and physicality of the opposition.

“They put us under a lot of pressure and that forced up to make mistakes,” said Canon captain Ryohei Mitomo.

A penalty by Mitomo closed the gap and showed that the Eagles were taking things seriously even though this was a preseason friendly.

But that was as good as it got as the Blue Bulls – who contained 6 Springbok players, including Francois Hougaard who will play for the Eagles in the Top League after this year’s Rugby World Cup – proved they had too much firepower even with the sides playing uncontested scrums for 55 minutes after Canon’s 2 hookers were injured in the 1st half.

Labuschagne and Burger Odendaal both crossed early in the 2nd half, and while Canon did well to stop the scoring for a short period the Blue Bulls finished strongly with Hanro Liebenberg, Burger Odendaal, RG Snyman, Daniel Kriel all going over to ensure the vuvuzelas resonated around Machida.

Canon Eagles & Blue Bulls after the game

Scorers:

Canon Eagles:

• Penalties: Ryohei Mitomo (1)

Vodacom Blue Bulls:

• Tries: Deon Stegmann (1), Dean Greyling (1), Lappies Labuschagne (1), Burger Odendaal (2), Hanro Liebenberg (1), RG Snyman (1), Dan Kriel (1)
• Conversions: Louis Fouché (2), Tian Schoeman (3)

Teams:

Canon Eagles: 15 Michael Bond, 14 Koujirou Fujichika, 13 Richard Havili Kaufusi, 12 Ryohei Mitomo (Captain), 11 Tokiro Harada, 10 Taku Wada, 9 Takeru Fukui, 8 Karl Lowe, 7 Naoto Shimada, 6 Murphy Leilua, 5 Takashi Kikutani, 4 Suguru Hidaka, 3 Akira Jo, 2 Mitsugu Yamamoto, 1 Takatoshi Sugawara
Replacements: Yusuke Niwai, Kanta Higashionna, Yasuo Yamaji, Shohei Yuzawa, Ryouta Suginaga, Ryota Takagi, Michiyoshi Morita, Masaru Sugaya, Kazuhiko Usami, Muneyuki Uematsu, Naoshi Shimizu, Taisei Hayashi, Kenyu Fujimoto, Yusuke Ochiai.

Vodacom Blue Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Lappies Labuschagne (Captain), 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling
Replacements: Bandise Maku, Andrew Beerwinkel, Rudolph Snyman, Roelof Smit, Ivan van Zyl, Tian Schoeman, Willam Small-Smith, Nqoba Mxoli, Hanro Liebenberg, Dan Kriel, Jannes Kirsten, Kefentse Mahlo.

Referee: Akihisa Aso (Japan)
Assistant Referees: Kohei Osawa (Japan), Noboru Ohira (Japan)