Scrappy Australia hang on to edge Japan in rain-soaked Tokyo

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TOKYO - Australia were pushed until the last few seconds but held on for a scrappy 19-15 win over Japan at a rain-soaked National Stadium to kick off their end-of-season tour on Saturday.

Nick Champion de Crespigny scored a try in his first match as captain, with Josh Flook and openside Carlo Tizzano also crossing to give the Wallabies a seventh win in seven matches against the Brave Blossoms.

Japan had a sniff of an upset of the twice world champions when second-half tries from prop Shuhei Takeuchi and Australian-born flanker Ben Gunter brought them to within four points of the lead in the final quarter.

The Wallabies hung on, however, and will move on to Europe for tests against England, Italy, Ireland and France over the next four weeks, having snapped a three-match losing streak.

It was great to get the win and definitely some areas to improve on, but we got the win and thats the important thing, said flanker Champion de Crespigny.

Australias lack of fluency was understandable given coach Joe Schmidt made 13 changes to his starting side and they lost locks Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and his replacement Josh Canham to injury in the first half.

They also produced the one moment of genuine quality in the match when fullback Andrew Kellaway ran a beautiful line to carve through the Japan defence and found Flook in support to score a try that gave the visitors a 14-3 halftime lead.

Outspoken coach Eddie Jones - now in his second stint as Japan coach - had talked up his sides chances before the game but, despite drawing so close, they were undone by handling errors and marginally more