Japan are playing warm-up matches for their World Cup qualifiers in Hong Kong next week. In the first they lost to an Australian Prime Minister's XV 61-19 last Saturday. John Roe who captained both Australian teams praised the Cherry Blossoms for their improvement in just six days.

John Kirwan, the incoming coach of Japan, said afterwards: “I am very disappointed we lost, “But as I just told the players, I am very proud of them. We can use today as our starting point for next week against Hong Kong and South Korea the week after.”

The Reds scored four ties to Japan's three.

Luatangi Samurai Vatuvei, Hideyuki Yoshida and Takashi Akatsuka  crossed for Japan with Kenji Shomen adding two conversions and Kyohei Morita a penalty.

Caleb Brown, Andrew Brown, Henari Veratau and Peter Hynes all touched down for the Reds. Clinton Schifcofske added three conversions and a penalty. The former Canberra Raiders' fullback and captain celebrated his 31st birthday with his first game of rugby union.

Japan play Hong Kong on 18 November and Korea on 25 November to decide which of the three goes directly to France in 2007. The runner up in the tournament faces Tonga in répechage.

Reds: 15 Clinton Schifcofske, 14 Caleb Brown, 13 Henari Veratau, 12 Lloyd Johansson, 11 Andrew Brown, 10 Peter Hynes, 9 Nic Berry, 8 John Roe (captain), 7 David Croft, 6 Ben Mowen, 5 Ed O'Donoghue, 4 Cameron Treloar, 3 Herman Hunt, 2 Sean Hardman, 1 Ben Coutts.
Replacements: 16 Geoff Abram, 17 Ben Daley, 18 Josh Afu,19 AJ Gilbert, 20 Will Genia, 21 Quade Cooper, 22 Charlie Fetoai.

Referee: Kazuhito Taniguchi
Touch judges: Minoru Fuji, Takeyuki Kishikawa