Australia v Japan: Nations Championship second Test – Townsville kick-off and Japan changes

Australia's Wallabies and Japan's Brave Blossoms met in the second Test of the Nations Championship in Townsville on 15 August 2026.

Kick-off in Townsville was scheduled for 3pm AEST/2pm JST/6am BST.

Eddie Jones named five changes to his side, with one of the incoming players, Harry Hockings, born a couple of hours along the Bruce Highway in Prosperpine.

The starting XV were 1 Takato Okabe, 2 Hayate Era, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Dearns (c), 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Tiennan Costley, 8 Faulua Makisi, 9 Naoto Saitō, 10 Ryunosuke Ito, 11 Yoshitaka Yazaki, 12 Dylan Riley, 13 Shunsuke Uenobo, 14 Haruto Kida and 15 Takuro Matsunaga. The reserves were 16 Mamoru Harada, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Izi Sword, 19 Jack Cornelsen, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Itsuki Kamimura, 22 Samisoni Tua and 23 Kazuma Ueda.