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Jones and Japan on a mission

Cape Town - The Springboks play Japan in their opening Rugby World Cup fixture, and opposition coach Eddie Jones has given some insight into what his goals are at the tournament. 

There are few who seriously believe that the Japanese can challenge the Boks in Brighton on Saturday. 

Instead, the big test for the Boks will be to gauge how some of their players have recovered from injury while at the same attempting to cultivate combinations in all areas. 

Jones, heavily linked with the Stormers job in Super Rugby next season, has a different outlook for his team though. 

"We've been through set-piece work, we are working out some little errors in our back line at the moment. Our communication is good and you can see the players' focus is being raised," Jones told the tournament's official website.

"But generally the media is not positive about Japanese rugby. 

"I remember we organised a game against the All Blacks two years ago. The first question I got was: 'Why are we having this game? Because it might damage the reputation of Japanese rugby'.

"So we had to change all of that. Our task at this World Cup is to show everyone that Japan can be a serious rugby nation."

Testing the Springboks will go a long way towards doing just that. 

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