Jamie Joseph confident Japan can add to pressure on England in World Cup

Japan head coach Jamie Joseph is confident that his side will be able to challenge England when the two teams lock horns with each other in the Pool D clash on 17th September in Nice.

The Brave Blossoms had a successful home World Cup in 2019 where they reached the quarter-finals and will be heading into this year's showpiece event with a high expectation.

They have been grouped in Pool D along with England, Argentina, Samoa and Chile and Joseph is highly hopeful of his team's chances especially with their attacking style of game play.

“We have a really attacking-based game using our fitness, the skill, the speed and a little bit unorthodox compared to the teams that we’re playing against,” Joseph told AFP.

“We know what England are going to bring, we know what Argentina are going to bring.

“They’re going to put us under a lot of pressure, but we create pressure in different ways.”

England finished fifth in this year's Six Nations tournament with Steve Borthwick replacing Eddie Jones, who held the position from 2016.

Joseph believes Jones, who guided England to the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup will be missed but is expecting them to overcome the transitional phase by the time they head to France.

“The team has suffered a little bit but they will be better because of that,” he said.

“I think the fact that they struggled a little bit in the Six Nations was only going to happen because it takes time for teams to build under a new coaching regime.

“A year on, they would have learned a lot.”