“It’s obvious this was a drastic change from the rugby we’ve been involved in, we had to adapt fast to a different speed, a much quicker game than we’d been playing,” Lemoine said.
“There were some positives: we defended a lot, had (a good) attitude right to the end, fought for every ball,” he was quoted as saying by Uruguayan Rugby Union (URU) media manager Ignacio Chans.
“Unfortunately, we missed scoring tries we should have got, with two or three players up against one, we must clearly avoid that to play at this level.”
Japan, who face South Africa, Samoa, United States and Scotland in Pool B, ran in two tries through number eight Hendrik Tui and hooker Shota Horie in the first half for a 17-8 lead at the interval.
Tui scored another try in the second half with fullback Ayumu Goromaru kicking 15 points.
Uruguay’s points came from a penalty by flyhalf Felipe Berchesi and a try from wing Jeronimo Etcheverry.
“We must improve the dynamics of our game to transfer defence into attack and attack into defence... The standard is different and we must get accustomed to this level (of rugby),” former Stade Francais prop Lemoine said.
“We have shorter players than other teams and we still suffer that.
“Fatigue played an important part and the heat was also complicated, we must take that into account for next Saturday,” added Lemoine looking ahead to the second test in Tokyo.
(Writing by Rex Gowar, editing by Ed Osmond)
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