Japan vs Italy Preview & Prediction | 2026 Nations Championship | Round 1
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Both Japan and Italy will view this as a winnable fixture as both nations begin their 2026 Nations Championship commitments.
Start date/time:
How to watch on TV: UK – ITV / USA – Not televised
How to watch online: UK – ITVX / USA – RugbyPass TV
Japan team news: Ito one of four uncapped starters
Squad: 15 Takuro Matsunaga, 14 Kazuma Ueda, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Yuya Hirose, 11 Kippei Ishida, 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 9 Naoto Saito, 8 Jack Cornelsen, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 6 Ben Gunter, 5 Warner Dearns (captain), 4 Harry Hockings, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 2 Mamoru Harada, 1 Takato Okabe
Replacements: 16 Hayate Era, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Tiennan Costley, 22 Itsuki Kamimura, 23 Sam Greene
Italy team news: Debuts for Ortombin & Faissal
Squad: 15 Lorenzo Pani, 14 Malik Faissal, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Muhamed Hasa, 19 Riccardo Favretto, 20 Ross Vintcent, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Tommaso Allan
Japan vs Italy prediction
Japan will be without suspended head coach Eddie Jones for their Nations Championship opener, but they will still come into this one with a fair degree of optimism having beaten two northern hemisphere sides in 2025.
While those victories were against Georgia and a massively struggling Wales side, it still represents another step in the right direction for Japanese rugby, as preparations continue for next year's World Cup.
Italy, though, are coming off the back of an excellent Six Nations campaign that saw them finish in fourth place, which matches their best ever placement in the annual northern hemisphere competition.
The Azzurri will be keen to maintain the positivity around the national team right now, and this is a favourable fixture for them to begin their Nations Championship campaign.
Japan have made some positive steps in recent times but they will miss Jones' influence here, and Italy should have too much for them in Tokyo.
Japan vs Italy tip: Italy to win
