Nunomaki will lead the team out against a Wales President’s XV coached by international U18s boss Gruff Rees at Cross Keys this Saturday (6.30pm) aiming to cheer his side up.
“Though we lost the game, we learned a lot from our loss,” said Nunomaki.
“It was shame that we could not achieve one of our goals for this tour, ‘To win all four games’, but we will do our best for the rest of tour and the last game on Saturday to achieve another goal, ‘Cheer up Japan’.”
After leading 22 – 11 at half time the Japan High Schools team, who left Tokyo in the immediate aftermath of the recent earthquake, let in two unanswered tries from the Dragons Dom Franchi and captain Cameron Regan in the second half and suffered under the boot of Ethan Davies who kicked a further ten points.
The game started at a frenetic pace with the Japanese showing their intentions from the start running the ball from deep, a bone crunching tackle from centre Jack Dixon and a steel of possession enabled him to show great pace and link with fellow centre Hallam Amos to open the scoring for the home team.
The Japanese hit back immediately with a try of their own after sustained pressure on the Dragons line and a further penalty stretched their lead.
A Davies penalty pegged back the visitors, but a further try from the dynamic Japanese’s flanker gave his side the lead. Another penalty from the visitors gave them total control of the game but, in the dying seconds of the first half, Davies added another penalty to make the half time score 22 -11.
Whatever the Dragons coaches said at half time certainly paid dividends as the home side came out breathing fire in second half and two tries plus further penalties from Ethan Davies sealed the victory for the Dragons and marked an historic first win on this first game for the Academy side.
“It was a good exercise playing international opposition and although the Japanese team were that bit older it was satisfying to see that our under 16 players were able to play at that level,” said Will Thomas Regional Performance programme Manager.
Wales Presidents XV line-up for Saturday, 6.30pm Cross Keys: Dion Jones; Aron Evans, Ryan Edwards Evans, Jordan Williams, Ryan Evans; Rhys Patchell, Josh Davies; Nicky Smith, Evan Yardley, Daniel Suter, Llewellyn Jones, Jack Jones (captain), Sion Bennett, Daniel Thomas, Lewis Young.
Replacements: Elliot Dee, Calum Lewis, Bradley Thyer, Rhodri Hughes, Ieuan Jones, Alex Schwrtz, Ben Roberts, Owen Jenkins.
