Japan head coach Eddie Jones questioned some of referee Paul Williams' officiating after his side fell to a 28-21 defeat against Wales at the Principality Stadium. The Brave Blossoms were left to rue a "missed opportunity" for a historic first victory over Wales in Cardiff, having disrupted the home side's driving lineout throughout the match.
Jones raises officiating issue
Despite not being asked about the matter, Jones brought up a part of the match he felt was overlooked by the officials. After scrum-half Naoto Saito answered an unrelated question, the former England and Australia coach interjected to highlight a specific concern.
"Can I just add to that? I hope I'm not going to get in trouble for this," he said. "There was one penalty for not supporting your weight at the breakdown.
"In the whole game, one penalty and it was against us. Anyone watching that game - do you think there was just one ruck where the supporting player was off his feet?
"That can be the difference between winning and losing. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying sometimes you don't get the rub of the green.
"That can happen. You've got to suck it up and get on with it. Maybe I am complaining."
Pride despite defeat
Despite that grievance, Jones said he was proud of his side's efforts, admitting they were not clinical enough to claim a notable win. "Firstly, congratulations to Wales," he said. "Good win for them.
"I'm proud of my team. We had a particularly young team, some university students and one 10 playing his first Test. But they stuck at it.
"The big difference was... you watch rugby now. I don't know if it's changed, but once you get in the 22, if you don't take points from that, I feel that's the difference in the game now.
"We had three opportunities but we didn't take chances and Wales did. Their points-per-entry was higher than ours."
He added: "That could have been a historic win for us. But you've got to be good enough to take advantage of those mistakes.
"We weren't quite good enough. It was certainly a missed opportunity."
The result leaves Japan with only a losing bonus point, and a rematch between the two teams in the finals weekend of the Nations Championship now appears likely in a few weeks' time.
