Japan toil to beat Korea

Their focus firmly on this year's World Cup, Japan struggled to beat South Korea 56-30 on Saturday in the opening game of the inaugural Asian Championship.

The Brave Blossoms, forced into several changes through injury and Super Rugby commitments, made a string of handling errors in Incheon in a display that will hardly have struck terror into World Cup opponents South Africa, Scotland, Samoa and the United States.

"We were a bit rusty and sloppy for most parts of the game," Japan coach Eddie Jones told local media.

"Korea played well for the first 30 minutes and we gave them some points which got their spirits up. But our focus is the World Cup."

Japan found themselves in a hole at 17-3 down but tries from Hayden Hopgood and Chihito Matsui, making his international debut, stopped the rot and a penalty try sent the visitors into halftime leading 22-20.

The Japanese stepped up their game after the break and could have won by a wider margin had the normally reliable Ayumu Goromaru brought his kicking boots, though the full-back finished with 16 points.

The Asian Championship replaces the Asian Five Nations - with Japan competing against South Korea and Hong Kong in the top tier.

Japan broke into the world's top 10 for the first time last year after a string of 10 successive wins, including a victory over Six Nations side Italy.

Jones has targeted a place in the quarterfinals at the World Cup, but Japan have won just once at the sport's showcase event - beating Zimbabwe in 1991.

Agence France-Presse