Rookie hooker, 22, to make first Japan Test start against the Boks

Saitama Wild Knights youngster Kenji Sato will make his first Test start for Japan against back-to-back world champions South Africa at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Sato, 22, won just his fifth cap for the Brave Blossoms in the narrow defeat to the Wallabies in Tokyo after coming off the bench in all four of his country’s Pacific Nations Cup (PNC) games. 

Japan’s first-choice hooker Mamoru Harada, who was initially announced as a co-captain for the PNC campaign alongside Warner Dearns, pulled out of the six-team tournament following the pool stage in September – without playing a game - due to his ‘condition’. 

Eddie Jones started highly-regarded Kubota Spears hooker Hayate Era in every PNC match with Sato coming on in his place in the final quarter against Canada, USA, Tonga and Fiji.

Era picked up an injury against Australia and has been ruled out of his country’s Autumn tour which starts with a daunting assignment against Rugby Championship winners South Africa.  

Third-choice Sato (below), a capable deputy during his first PNC tournament, will now be handed the number two jersey for the first time for his country. 

Sato debuted against Canada in August - Picture courtesy of JRFU

The Waseda University graduate turned pro in February and joined Robbie Deans’ Saitama side mid-season as an ‘early entry’ player.

Kanagawa native Sato, who stands at 177cm and tips the scale at 107kg, made 13 appearances in his first League One season last term and scored three tries as his team failed to reach the final for the first time in the fully professional, post-Top League era.

The former Japan u17 national team captain, who often played as a wing and a number eight as a teenager, was billed as the ‘next Shota Horie’ - a Saitama and Japan legend who retired in the summer - by Japan head coach Eddie Jones after impressing during a national team training camp in 2024 when he was still a university student.

Jones revealed that Sato would get the nod to start for his country’s biggest game of the year during Wednesday’s edition of the Rugby Unity podcast. 

“We’ve lost the hooker (Era), he’s normally our second-choice hooker, our first-choice (Harada) we lost during the PNC, and the second-choice, he showed that he could be as good as anything going around, he’s got a real feel for the game, he’s an aggressive, powerful, low player so we’re going to miss him. 

“We’ve got a young bloke (Sato) coming off the bench, going to be playing his first cap against South Africa at Wembley.” 

The Japan team left Tokyo on Wednesday morning for London as Jones, who has described their Autumn schedule as the country’s ‘most ambitious tour’, is plotting a repeat of the iconic 2015 Brighton miracle upset against the Springboks.

“We’ve done some forward planning,” said the former England head coach.

“The big thing is the attitude. We want to get out there and play. If we can train well on Thursday, it’ll put us in a good position.”