Australia 42–23 Japan, 3 June 1987

Men's Rugby World Cup 1987 · Concord Oval, Sydney | Gadigal · 3 June 1987Head-to-head

Full-time report

AUSAustralia42

JPNJapan23

Australia won by 19 points.Half-time 16–13 · Tries 8–3

Pitch map

Layers

Swipe the pitch sideways to see it full size.

Totals only: no positions in the feed

Tacklesmademissed

AUS3016

JPN7240

Kicks at goalconv.pensdrops

AUS5/50/00

JPN1/12/21

← Japan attack · Australia attack →Hover a try for detail · dots = tackles made · dashed = penalty goal · orange = missed · squares = rucks · triangles = line breaks and defenders beaten · rings = turnovers · bars at the foot = zone counts · thin lines = kicks from hand = attacking entries and ball won per band

Territory is not in the feed for this match.
Zone counts are not in the feed for this match.
Tackle positions are not in the feed for this match.
Kick positions are not in the feed for this match.
Ruck, line break, turnover, lineout and kick-from-hand positions are not in the feed for this match.
Tries with a dashed ring have no recorded position, so they sit in the in-goal at the end that side attacked.

Tries and goal kicks as a table

Min	Team	What	Score
9′	Australia	Try, Andy Slack	4–3
13′	Japan	Try, Eiji Kutsuki, converted	4–7
22′	Australia	Try, Steve Tuynman, converted	8–9
24′	Japan	Try, Eiji Kutsuki	10–13
34′	Australia	Try, Matt Burke, converted	14–13
47′	Australia	Try, Peter Grigg, converted	20–13
56′	Australia	Try, Mark Hartill	26–13
61′	Australia	Try, David Campese	30–16
74′	Japan	Try, Tsuyoshi Fujita	30–23
78′	Australia	Try, Andy Slack, converted	34–23
81′	Australia	Try, Matt Burke, converted	40–23

Sample dataTerritory shares are estimated, and tries without a recorded position are placed in the in-goal. Other positions are as logged by the match feed and approximate.

Score progression

Drag to replay the match on the pitchSwipe the chart sideways for the full match.

9′Andy Slack13′Eiji Kutsuki22′Steve Tuynman24′Eiji Kutsuki34′Matt Burke47′Peter Grigg56′Mark Hartill61′David Campese74′Tsuyoshi Fujita78′Andy Slack81′Matt Burke

AUS

Team stats

JPN

73%Possession27%

122Carries63

529Metres gained258

14Clean breaks9

40Defenders beaten16

184Passes104

26Offloads18

30Tackles made72

16Tackles missed40

23/28Rucks won6/8

22/26Lineouts won10/23

18/19Scrums won11/11

23/28Mauls won7/7

6Penalties conceded10

63Kicks from hand67

Goal kicking
AUS conversions 5/5, penalties 0/0 · JPN conversions 1/1, penalties 2/2. Pale segment = set piece lost.

Match statistics and event positions come from World Rugby’s public match feed, which is unofficial and not licensed for reuse; TheBreakdown reduces them to the figures shown. This feed has team statistics but no positions for this match.

Line-ups

Australia

1Enrique RodriguezProp
2Mark McBainHooker
3Mark HartillProp
4Steve CutlerSecond row
5Ross ReynoldsSecond row
6Simon PoidevinFlanker
7David CodeyFlanker
8Steve TuynmanNumber 8
9Brian SmithScrum-half
10Michael LynaghFly-half
11Matt BurkeWing
12Michael CookCentre
13Andy SlackCentre
14Peter GriggWing
15David CampeseFull-back
16Nick Farr-JonesBench
17Andrew LeedsBench
18Brett PapworthBench
19Tommy LawtonBench
20Cameron LillicrapBench
21Bill CampbellBench

Japan

Match officials

Sample data

Referee: Sample Referee
Assistant referee: Sample Assistant 1
Assistant referee: Sample Assistant 2
TMO: Sample TMO

Sample data Match officials is placeholder content: TheBreakdown has no data source for it yet, so nothing here is real.

Context

All-time, Australia 9–0 Japan in 9 scored Tests. Full head-to-head

Australia going in

Japan going in

Previous meeting: 17 August 1975, Australia 50–25 Japan
Next meeting on record: 8 September 2007

Also on this day

Results to 27 September 2026. Scoring and line-ups come from World Rugby match summaries where available; older Tests may have neither.