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Japan turn attention to Ireland Tests

Cape Town - Japan head coach Jamie Joseph knows his side must improve after they opened their June campaign with a 33-21 win over Romania.

The Brave Blossoms prevailed at Egao Kenko Stadium as two contrasting styles met, with Japan coming out on top in a three-try victory.

Next up for Japan will be two Tests against Ireland and Joseph was happy to go into those games with a hard-fought win under their belt.

"The game played out as we expected," the head coach told Japan's official website.

"On one side of the ledger you had big guys playing a set-piece orientated game that put us under pressure. And we played our style and fortunately we came out on top.

"It was clear and evident that when we get our game going we look good. But when we were put under pressure we did not execute our roles as well as in the first half. When you drop your guard at this level teams come back and hit you.

"We need to be more disciplined and trust each other so players don't feel they have to do things that get them penalised or shown a yellow card. It's too hard.

"When we were back to 15 players we got control back of the game and should have scored right at the end."

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