Warner Dearns insists his Japan team must flex their muscles if they are to make an impression on England at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
While head coach Eddie Jones has placed the focus on the left-field tactics needed to disrupt the overwhelming favourites, Dearns knows it will count for nothing if Japan fail to match them upfront.
“It’s always a set-piece battle against England,” the Brave Blossoms’ captain said.
“They do a very good job at the scrum and line-out and in the past we’ve ended up on the back foot a bit.
“They’re obviously very, very physical and I remember in 2022 when Eddie was England coach they brought line speed on our forwards and we didn’t have anywhere to go but backwards.
“I assume they’ll have similar tactics and bring the physicality again this time.”
— Japan Rugby (@JRFURugby) November 13, 2026
Japan team to play England in Nations Championship
Forwards: 1 Yota Kamimori, 2 Mamoru Harada, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Dearns (Co-captain), 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 8 Jack Cornelsen
Backs: 9 Naoto Saito (Co-captain), 10 Riku Kitahara, 11 Riku Tokito, 12 Samisoni Tua, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Kippei Ishida, 15 Kazuma Ueda
Replacements: 16 Kenji Sato, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Opeti Helu, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Tiennan Costley, 21 Shinobu Fujiwara, 22 Shinya Komura, 23 Jisu Lee