The Wallabies delivered some fun in the sun in Townsville, weathering a tough first half armwrestle from Japan to score five tries in the second half and run out 56-17 winners.
In front of 18,076 fans at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, the men in gold put on an attacking masterclass to start the Les Kiss era on home soil in style, the fairytale capped off with a try on debut to Wallaby #1000, Massimo De Lutiis.
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"Test rugby, sometimes it takes a while to break a game down," coach Les Kiss said post match.
"We had a chat at half time about how we better manage our kicking game, our work on and off the ball, just a little bit of those areas where we gave them a bit of scope to be able to play their quite fast and curious game but we were cool and calm and collected to a degree at half-time.
"We just made sure we got the right things right shifting the game in the second half into managing field position better."
Similar to last week, the first half was played at a frenetic pace, the Wallabies handling the early pressure before a break from Isaac Henry saw the hosts strike from deep, with Josh Nasser burrowing over for the opening try in the sixth minute.
The Brave Blossoms persisted, however, with Harry Hockings responding six minutes later, charging down a Ryan Lonergan clearance to give the visitors their first of the afternoon.
Japan asked plenty of questions of the Wallaby defence, with brilliant work off the boot finding space behind the hosts' line, Ryunosuke Ito continuing his excellent form at flyhalf from last week.
However, turning to brute force proved fruitful for the hosts with Taniela Tupou barging over in the 17th minute to see the score 14-5 inside the first 20 minutes.
Japan’s work on the Wallaby defence was rewarded in the 25th minute, with Naoto Saito catching the hosts napping to score and bring the margin back to two points.
With momentum on their side, Japan hounded the Wallaby line and then took the lead for the first time in the 33rd minute, as Dylan Riley bashed his way over the line to give the visitors a three-point lead, the Brave Blossoms punishing some passive moments in the hosts’ defence.
However, a second try to Tupou at halftime proved critical for the hosts, heading into the break with a slim 21-17 lead.
As Massimo De Lutiis made history as the 1000th Wallaby, the hosts came out firing in the second half, as Angus Bell gave the Townsville fans a fond reminder of last year’s match winner with a try in the 51st minute to extend the margin to 11 points.
Buoyed by several strong steals from Carlo Tizzano and Jeremy Williams, Carter Gordon, who had been threatening all match, cut the Japanese line to threads in the 58th minute, and in a fairytale debut, the pass to De Lutiis saw the prop power over the line, the highlight of the afternoon.
The visitors finally got the chance to attack in Wallaby territory on the hour mark, but the hosts’ defence had learnt their lessons in the break, with Paenga-Amosa joining in on making it a tough afternoon for Japan at the ruck.
McReight coming on from the bench only made things more difficult at ruck time, and as the final ten minutes ticked over, the Australian set piece was rewarded for a dominant afternoon, a shove off the scrum seeing Charlie Cale grab Australia’s sixth.
Wilson joined the party off the restart in the 76th minute, a strike from deep seeing the captain barge over for Australia’s seventh, the fans applauding the try as Japanese hooker Mamoru Harada was sent to the bin.
As the final minutes ticked down, Donaldson, McReight and Daugunu broke the line from deep, and as the siren sounded, a tap-and-go after repeated penalties saw Paenga-Amosa rewarded for a strong second half with the hosts’ final try, cracking 50 points.
The result sees the hosts maintain their perfect record in Townsville, sending a big statement of intent ahead of their tour to Argentina.
"They won the air, they won three kicks down the right-hand side, won the breakdown, so that's about 11 positions," Japan coach Eddie Jones reflected.
"You get that weight of positions, we weren't good enough to defend our errors. when you make errors like that, you've got to be good enough to defend them.
"It was just a pressure of position and congratulations to Australia. They played well in the second half.
Wallabies 56 (Tries: Nasser, Tupou 2, Bell, De Lutiis, Cale, Wilson, Paenga-Amosa. Cons: Lonergan 5/5, Donaldson 3/3) def Japan 17 (Tries: Hockings, Saito, Riley. Cons: Matsunaga 1/3)
