Thirty-five unanswered points after the break
Japan led. That is the part Australia will want to forget. Dylan Riley brushed off two soft tackles on 33 minutes and the visitors were 17-14 up at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, in front of 18,076 people, in warm conditions that suited nobody wearing gold.
Then Taniela Tupou charged over on the siren, on a penalty advantage, and the afternoon turned. Australia scored 35 points without reply after the interval and won 56-17.
Harry Wilson was blunt about the first period. “Our spark probably wasn’t there,” the captain said. “And we got challenged by Les (Kiss) at half-time. And a team like Japan, if you’re not up for it, they really make you pay.”
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Seven tries, one debutant, one milestone
Josh Nasser opened the scoring in the seventh minute, finishing a move Max Jorgensen had launched down the touchline. Tupou bulldozed over for the second and added his double before the break. Angus Bell, Charlie Cale, Wilson and Brandon Paenga-Amosa completed the seven-try haul, with Ryan Lonergan kicking five conversions.
Massimo De Lutiis came off the bench and scored on debut, finishing a line break. He is the 1,000th man to play for Australia.
Japan’s three tries came through Harry Hockings, who charged down a Lonergan clearance, scrum-half Naoto Saito with a tap and go from five metres, and Riley. “It was a good, tough, really hard battle,” said captain Warner Dearns. “Credit to the Wallabies, who came out and gave us one in the second half, which we obviously couldn’t keep up with.”
A streak, and a home World Cup a year out
Three wins in a row. Australia had not managed that since 2024, when they beat Portugal, Wales twice and Georgia. The run began with a 57-10 win over Italy in Joe Schmidt’s final match, which itself snapped a six-Test losing streak, and now runs through back-to-back victories over Eddie Jones’s Japan.
Japan have played the Wallabies nine times since 1975 without winning. Townsville will stage matches at the 2027 World Cup on Australian soil, which leaves Les Kiss a little over a year to turn a hot streak into something sturdier.
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