Wales take Japan apart

Wales 98 Japan 0

Wales recorded the biggest win in their illustrious international history tonight as they ran hapless Japan ragged.

Captain Colin Charvis led the way, scoring four of his team’s 14 tries – a record for a Welsh forward – to help his team end their four-Test autumn series in scintillating style.

Centre Gavin Henson kicked all 14 conversions, another Welsh Test record, with Wales eclipsing their 91-point winning margin against Portugal in a World Cup qualifier 10 years ago, when they triumphed 102-11 in Lisbon.

For Japan, crushed 100-8 by Scotland in Perth earlier this month and defeated away to Romania six days ago, it proved another horribly harsh learning experience.

Wales toyed with their opponents throughout the game. Charvis apart, there was a hat-trick for centre Tom Shanklin, while wing Shane Williams (2), full-back Rhys Williams (2), hooker Mefin Davies, scrum-half Gareth Cooper and prop Gethin Jenkins also touched down.

Henson’s 28-point haul helped give Wales an effortless send-off into their next game – an enticing RBS 6 Nations Championship opener against world champions England in Cardiff on February 5.

Amazingly, a crowd of 56,000 witnessed the no-contest, taking Wales’ total attendance over four November Tests against Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and Romania to more than 220,000.

The crowd statistics, more than anything, underlined excitement levels surrounding new coach Mike Ruddock’s team. England though, will provide the acid test of any Welsh revival.

Ruddock made several changes following the agonising 26-25 defeat at New Zealand’s hands last Saturday.

French-based trio Gareth Thomas, Stephen Jones and Gareth Llewellyn all returned to their clubs, but a highly-experienced core to the Welsh side remained.

Ruddock though, was not prepared for a last-minute switch which saw lock Brent Cockbain suffer a side strain during the warm-up. Cockbain was replaced by Michael Owen, who moved from the back-row, and Ryan Jones started at number eight.

It took Wales less than four minutes to open their account, and they struck with a try of efficient simplicity.

Japanese full-back Ryohei Miki made a hash of gathering the ball inside his own 22, and after gaining only limited distance with his eventual touch-finder, Wales drove a lineout and Charvis stretched over to score.

Henson slotted the angled conversion, and Wales struck again just two minutes later when full-back Williams weaved his way through weak tackling and touched down between the posts for Henson to convert.

Japan, despite a break-out led by flanker Feletiliki Mau, found themselves retreating again in the ninth minute as Wales split their defence wide open.

Shane Williams caused the initial damage 60 metres out, and although the supporting Henson could probably have scored himself, he unselfishly allowed Charvis his second try, and Wales, assisted by Henson’s third conversion, led 21-0.

The visitors already faced another humiliating defeat, compounded in the 15th-minute when hooker Davies claimed Wales’ fourth try after Charvis was tackled just inches short of completing his hat-trick,

Shane Williams’ running from deep proved too much for Japan to cope with, and his effortless counter-attacking yielded another reward on 21 minutes, this time Shanklin proving the beneficiary.

Wales’ only evident problem was their own over-eagerness at times, yet Shanklin soon added his second touchdown and Charvis completed an easy hat-trick, making it 49-0 with Japan still nowhere near the sanctuary of half-time.

Jenkins galloped over for Wales’ eighth try, again converted by the immaculate Henson, to take Wales past the half-century mark by half-time.

Ruddock surprisingly opted against making any interval substitutions, and Wales were on their merry way inside five minutes of the restart as Charvis showed the Japanese defence a clean pair of heels to register his fourth touchdown.

The visitors enjoyed their best spell during a disjointed third quarter, keeping Wales scoreless for 10 minutes until Cooper darted through a yawning gap.

Ruddock then opted for a double front-row switch, sending on Dragons hooker Steve Jones and Ospreys prop Adam Jones, and Wales immediately scored again, Shane Williams touching down.

Henson’s 11th successful conversion made it 77-0, which was the cue for Kevin Morgan to replace his Dragons colleague Hal Luscombe.

Shanklin completed his hat-trick – his second of the autumn series – 13 minutes from time, leaving Wales 16 points short of 100.

Shane Williams’ second try five minutes from time, converted by Henson, took Wales past the 90 mark, before Rhys Williams sprinted 70 metres unopposed.

Wales went all-out for the century, but South African referee Tappe Henning’s final whistle spared Japan that ultimate embarrassment after Morgan had a try disallowed.