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Two changes for Japan

Christian Loamanu: Pointed towards the full-back position

Japan coach John Kirwin has made just two changes - one positional - to his starting line-up for the team's tough World Cup Pool B clash against Wales in Cardiff on Thursday.

Full-back Go Aruga has failed to recover in time from an injury to his right ankle and he will be replaced by Tongan-born Christian Loamanu, who switches from the wing where he played in the 31-35 loss to Fiji.

The other change sees Hirotoki Onozawa, who came on for Aruga against the Fijians in Toulouse, comes in at left wing for Kosuke Endo who switches to the right in place of Loamanu.

There had been injury doubts over flanker Hare Makiri (flu) and centre Yuta Imamura (thigh and ankle) but Kirwan is hopeful both will be fit in time for the game against the Welsh at the Millennium Stadium.

The Japanese lost their opener 91-3 against Australia before the narrow defeat to Fiji.

Japan: 15 Christian Loamanu, 14 Kosuke Endo, 13 Yuta Imamura, 12 Shotaro Onishi, 11 Hirotoki Onozawa, 10 Bryce Robins, 9 Tomoki Yoshida, 8 Takuro Miuchi (c), 7 Philip O'Reilly, 6 Hare Makiri, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Soma Tomokazu, 2 Yuji Matsubara, 1 Tatsukishi Nishiura
Replacements: 16 Taku Inokuchi, 17 Ryo Yamamura, 18 Takanori Kumagae, 19 Yasunori Watanabe, 20 Kim Chul-won, 21 Koji Taira, 22 Tatsuya Kusumi

Date: Thursday, September 20
Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off: 20:00 (19:00 GMT)
Referee: Joël Jutge
Touch judges: Mark Lawrence, Craig Joubert
Television match official: Christophe Berdos
Assessor: Bob Francis