Japan's hopes of finishing the calendar year unbeaten in test matches were dashed at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium on Sunday as the Brave Blossoms went down 35-24 to Georgia.
While it would be easy to make excuses — the Japan pack struggled big time with the interpretations of referee Romain Poite in both the tight and loose and the evening dew saw the speedy Japan backs struggle to keep their footing when they had ball in hand — it was not a good day at the office for the Brave Blossoms.
Even accounting for the different way the laws can be and were interpreted, the Japan forwards enjoyed a torrid time at the hands of the Lelos pack and two of the Georgian tries came from what can only be described as schoolboy errors from Japan backs as the Brave Blossoms ensured they were the dragon on what was St. George's Day in Georgia.
It didn't help that the game had to be stopped in the first half after a laser was directed into the eyes of the Japanese players, and that Poite needed a mobile phone to contact the television match official, but Japan — which had won its previous 11 test matches dating back to Nov. 15, 2013 — should have put the distractions to one side.
Instead it played 20 minutes of the game with 14 players after both Luke Thompson and Keita Inagaki paid the penalty for Japan constantly getting on the wrong side of the French referee.
"It's difficult to implement any game plan in a test match if you don't win your set piece," said head coach Eddie Jones.
Kensuke Hatakeyama, who was leading the side in place of the injured Michael Leitch, and fellow prop Masataka Mikami were particularly targeted by Poite at scrum time.
"We were inferior in the scrum throughout the game," Hatakeyama said. "We need to make sure we are in it mentally and that we are competing with eight players at all times. But I am sure we will be a better side once we stabilize the set piece."
As Jones said, experiences like this can be good if you learn from them and it should be remembered that they were missing close on 10 players that the coach expects to be in the starting line-up for Japan's first Rugby World Cup game next September against South Africa.
"We can see some of the things we are still lacking and have come to realize you can't keep making the same mistakes so it was good preparation for the Rugby World Cup," said Leitch, who watched the game from the sidelines.
Japan started brightly enough, spending most of the first 10 minutes in the Georgian half.
But the warning signs were already there with a couple of collapsed scrums, and on the two occasions the big Georgian forwards got a sniff of the line, they scored.
Hooker Shalva Mamukashvili was pushed over by his pack for the first try in the 12th minute following a good rolling maul while the second came 10 minutes later from a penalty try for a collapsed scrum after Japan had been reduced to 14 men following Thompson's yellow card.
Despite being a man down, Japan fought back and scored 10 points in the space of two minutes.
Ayumu Goromaru banged over a penalty in the 27th minute before Japan made the most of a Georgian howler at the restart.
With the ball going dead Japan opted for a scrum on the halfway line, despite its problems and numerical disadvantage. A quick channel-one ball allowed Amanaki Lelei Mafi to break clear and the No. 8 used his considerable pace to get into the Georgian 22 before a good offload saw Karne Hesketh cross for his first test try.
With the half coming to a close, Japan needed to hold on after Georgia once again set up camp in its 22.
But it wasn't to be as Merab Kvirikashvili went over following another messy Japan scrum to make it 17-10 at the break. Kvirikashvili added a penalty soon after the restart before Lasha Khmaladze capitalized on Kotaro Matsushima allowing the ball to bounce as the Georgian flyhalf followed up the fly-hack ahead to extend the lead.
Japan struck back with another try from Hesketh following a quick tap penalty and some good work by Thompson. But indiscipline saw Kvirikashvili bang over a second penalty in the 72nd minute before Kosei Ono's no-look pass was intercepted allowing Beka Tsiklauri to go over in the corner.
Harumichi Tatekawa scored a late try for the Brave Blossoms as the visitors finally put some phases together but it was too little too late.
"We made too many mistakes in attack and lost control of the game," said Hesketh.