24 years in 140 characters: Never mind 140 characters: All Blacks put 145 points on them in 95. Beat Zimbabwe in 91 and drew with Canada in 07. Usually score fine tries

Coach: John Kirwan

Captain: Takashi Kikutani

World Cup record:

1987: Pool Stages

1991: Pool Stages

1995: Pool Stages

1999: Pool Stages

2003: Pool Stages

2007: Pool Stages

Record in 2011: P9 W7 L2

Coached by John Kirwan, the All Black wing who set the tone for the tournament of 1987 with his devastating running, Japan can still only gaze up at him and admire the quality that still eludes them: size. They broke their run of 13 defeats at the World Cup with a draw against Canada in 2007 and contributed to one of the mini epics of that same World Cup in a 35-31 defeat by Fiji, but this one is going to be tough. The Brave Blossoms face first France, then New Zealand. Please note that they will be without the fly-half Ryohei Yamanaka, banned for applying a growth treatment (to boost his moustache) that contained a steroid.

Key player: New Zealand is a rugby exporter to Japan, but few players have gone through more zig-zags than centre Ryan Nicholas – born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, of Cook Island heritage, educated in New Zealand and now a Brave Blossom through residency.

Commentator's kit: Much to David Campese's chagrin, the leading try-scorer in Tests is Daisuke Ohata, who scored 69 tries in 58 games for Japan.

Squad

Nozomu Fujita, prop, age 26, caps 10

Kensuke Hatakeyama, prop, age 26, caps 23

Hisateru Hirashima, prop, age 28, caps 24

Naoki Kawamata, prop, age 25, caps 17

Yusuke Aoki, hooker, age 28, caps 21

Shota Horie, hooker, age 25, caps 14

Hiroki Yuhara, hooker, age 27, caps 8

Justin Ives, second-row, age 27, caps 8

Toshizumi Kitagawa, second-row, age 30, caps 37

Hitoshi Ono, second-row, age 33, caps 51

Luke Thompson, second-row, age 30, caps 34

Takashi Kikutani (c), age 21, caps 44

Michael Leitch, flanker, age 22, caps 19

Sione Vatuvei, flanker, age 28, caps 5

Ryukoliniasi Holani, No8, age 29, caps 19

Itaru Taniguchi, No8, age 26, caps 7

Atsushi Hiwasa, scrum-half, age 24, caps 6

Fumiaki Tanaka, scrum-half, age 26, caps 28

Tomoki Yoshida, scrum-half, age 29, caps 24

James Arlidge, fly-half, age 32, caps 29

Shaun Webb, full-back, age 29, caps 31

Murray Williams, fly-half, age 29, caps 3

Yuta Imamura, centre, age 26, caps 32

Ryan Nicholas, centre, age 32, caps 32

Koji Taira, centre, age 28, caps 30

Alisi Tupuailai, centre, age 30, caps 16

Taihei Ueda, full-back, age 29, caps 5

Kosuke Endo, wing, age 30, caps 38

Hirotoki Onozawa, wing, age 33, caps 64

Takehisa Usuzuki, wing, age 25, caps 5

Average age 27.7

Average caps 22.8