england vs japan: England run in 13 tries to crush Japan 78-15, Will Joseph scores five

In the england vs japan rugby union match, England thrashed Japan 78-15. Playing the Nations Championship game at Twickenham (Allianz Stadium) in London on Saturday, 14 November 2026, the hosts scored 13 tries in all, and five of them came from wing Will Joseph. Alongside the night's football, this rugby match was also widely searched in Bangladesh.

Japan managed only 2 tries. The contest was effectively over by the break, with England leading 49-10.

Joseph's storm starts in the first minute

Joseph scored his first try inside the opening minute. He added three more at 10, 20 and 25 minutes to complete four before half-time, and his fifth came from an interception in the second half.

The Gloucester wing was playing for England for the first time since July 2022. On his return he equalled England's record for the most tries in a single Test. Before him, only Douglas Lambert, Rory Underwood, Josh Lewsey and Henry Arundell had scored five tries in a Test for England.

Eight tries before half-time

The match kicked off at 10:40pm Bangladesh time, and England scored 8 tries in the first half and 5 more after the break. One of Japan's two tries came just before half-time and the other early in the second half, but by then the gap was far too wide for the visitors to get back into the game.

England's win could have been even bigger. Had they not missed so many conversion kicks, the score would have passed 90 points.

Red card adds to Japan's problems

Japan were under pressure from the start. Lock Harry Hockings was first shown a yellow card, which was upgraded on review to a 20-minute red. England piled on tries during that spell.

Scoring at a glance

• Result: England 78, Japan 15 (half-time 49-10)
• England tries (13): Will Joseph 5; Freddie Steward, Ellis Genge, Cadan Murley, Ben Earl, George Martin, Ben Curry, Marcus Smith and Greg Fisilau 1 each
• Kicking: George Ford 3 conversions and 1 penalty, Henry Slade 2 conversions; 8 missed conversions cost 16 points
• Japan: tries by Warner Dearns and Opeti Helu, kicks by Naoto Saito

Eddie Jones's return

Japan coach Eddie Jones is a former England head coach, and his return to Twickenham with Japan ended in a heavy defeat. England are coached by Steve Borthwick. Earlier this month, on 7 November, Japan also lost 28-21 to Wales.

In rugby union a try is worth 5 points, a conversion 2 and a penalty kick 3. So England's 13 tries gave 65 points, five conversions added 10 and one penalty 3, for a total of 78.

What happens next

England host New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday, 21 November. On the same day Japan face Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. The Nations Championship finals weekend follows on 27-29 November.

Sources

This report was put together by comparing reports from Sky Sports, The Citizen (AFP), Dave Sport and VAVEL. Links are listed below.