Arizona Tribune - Eddie Jones plots shock against much-changed Australia in Tokyo

Joe Schmidt's men will afterwards head to Europe to take on England, Italy, Ireland and France on successive weekends.

Champion de Crespigny was named captain in just his third Test, having made his debut against the British and Irish Lions in July.

The 29-year-old will line up in the back row alongside Carlo Tizzano and Rob Valetini, and Schmidt said his new captain would take it in his stride.

"Nick has been with us consistently week to week throughout and is part of the leadership group anyway, so it was a natural enough progression for him," Schmidt said as he named his team on Thursday.

"Nick is very much a leader by actions and he'll want to be in the thick of the action as much as he can be."

Schmidt made wholesale changes to the team that lost 28-14 to New Zealand earlier this month to draw the curtain on a frustrating Rugby Championship campaign won by South Africa.

The head coach said his selections were about "energy management" after a gruelling few months that have included a home Test against Fiji, the Lions series and the Rugby Championship.

"There is definitely a risk -- part of the job of the coaching staff is to manage risk as best we can," said Schmidt.

"If we don't give opportunity to the squad, we start to lose energy towards the end of a five-Test window, particularly when you're travelling such long distances."

Tane Edmed keeps his place at fly half despite the return of Carter Gordon to the squad after a stint in rugby league.

Gordon was not named in the matchday squad and Schmidt said it was too early for the playmaker after being rushed back into the fold following his move to Super Rugby's Queensland Reds.

"In such a pivotal position as 10 it's very hard to go straight in and start leading the team," said Schmidt.

- 'Extreme competitive spirit' -

Australia will face a formidable opponent in Jones, who faces his home country for the first time since stepping down as Wallabies coach following their disastrous 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign to begin a second stint in charge of Japan.

The move sparked anger in Australia, after Jones had repeatedly denied reports that he was set to take the Japan job.

The 65-year-old has led teams against Australia in the past and said he was looking forward to upsetting his countrymen again.

"I enjoy beating Australia. I coached against them 10 times for England and beat them nine times," said Jones.

"Playing against your own country, there's always a certain amount of different feeling involved in it, but it just brings out the extreme competitive spirit within yourself."

Jones said there was "a winning opportunity" for Japan if they could unsettle an unfamiliar Wallabies line-up.

"When you're playing a team that has got a lot of players that are playing for a spot and they want to be the starting guys, if things don't go their way at the start of the game they can get frustrated," he said.

"Our job is to bring out that frustration. Our job is to be at them the whole time."

Japan also head to Europe after Saturday's game, taking on world champions South Africa, Ireland, Wales and Georgia.

Japan (15-1)

Yoshitaka Yazaki; Kippei Ishida, Dylan Riley, Shogo Nakano, Tomoki Osada; Seungsin Lee, Shinobu Fujiwara; Michael Leitch, Kanji Shimokawa, Ben Gunter; Warner Dearns (capt), Jack Cornelsen; Shuhei Takeuchi, Hayate Era, Kenta Kobayashi

Replacements: Kenji Sato, Ryosuke Iwaihara, Keijiro Tamefusa, Tyler Paul, Tiennan Costley, Kenta Fukuda, Charlie Lawrence, Sam Greene

Australia (15-1)

Andrew Kellaway; Corey Toole, Josh Flook, Hunter Paisami, Dylan Pietsch; Tane Edmed, Jake Gordon; Rob Valetini, Carlo Tizzano, Nick Champion De Crespigny (capt); Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Jeremy Williams; Zane Nonggorr, Josh Nasser, Angus Bell

Replacements: Billy Pollard, Aidan Ross, Tom Robertson, Josh Canham, Harry Wilson, Ryan Lonergan, Hamish Stewart, Filipo Daugunu

A.Moore--AT