Rugby: Old mates Kirwan and Dowd to square off

John Kirwan’s Japan side take on North Harbour at Albany on Friday. Photo / Natalie Slade

Long time Auckland and All Blacks teammates John Kirwan and Craig Dowd turn combatants when North Harbour host Japan in a rugby international at Albany tomorrow night.

Both sides will be at close to full strength for a rare match between a New Zealand province and an international side although their motivations are different.

Kirwan believes his Japan side will benefit from some tough opposition after completing a clean sweep of the Asian Five Nations tournament with a 94-5 thrashing of Hong Kong. It qualified the Cherry Blossoms for next year's World Cup.

There will be an obvious step up in quality when they contest the Pacific Nations Cup tournament starting this month.

"Every year we try to play what I call a transistion game," Kirwan told the Reunion television programme.

"The Asian nations aren't as competitive as we'd like them to be so we need a game that's really going to test us defensively. There's nothing like getting out there and getting a taste of it so when we come to play Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, they're going to be hanging onto the ball a lot more than Hong Kong do."

He said his side would play a typical Japanese style "which is to have a good time and throw the ball around".

Another lure for Kirwan was the chance to assess North Harbour Stadium and local accommodation as their opening World Cup pool match is at the same venue, against France.

"Next year we'll be ready to jump on the French. We'll sneak up on them."

Dowd has lost the services of All Blacks second five-eighth Luke McAlister with a back injury but said the rest of the side were primed to perform.

"It's a great opportunity. It's not often a provincial side gets to match up against an international side so the boys are really fizzing. We get a measure of where we are at this stage of the season as well," Dowd said.

"I'm more comfortable with the foundation and the players we have (than last year). We had some x-factor last year but we also had some very inexperienced players. Overall across the whole team we've got backup in every position and we're looking much stronger."

- NZPA