Welsh show no mercy with rout of Japan

Neath flier Shane Williams put his name into the Welsh record books as he notched four tries in the rout of Japan in Osaka.

The 24-year-old, who dropped out of the international reckoning last season, proved he has the cutting edge to make the grade again as he chalked up nine tries in eight Tests. Given another chance to push his claims, Williams responded in brilliant fashion with a brace of tries in each half to join some of Wales' greatest wings in the record books. Now his name will appear alongside Willie Llewellyn, Reggie Gibbs, Maurice Richards, Ieuan Evans and Nigel Walker as having scored four tries in a Test match.

'I had a lot of chances to run with the ball,' said Williams. 'We had been working for two weeks on getting the ball to the wings and we managed that.

'The Japanese defended quite well and I think we made it look easier than it actually was out there. We had such a good first half that we were knackered going into the second half.' Wales, given such a hard time in the two opening matches of their five-game tour, grabbed four tries in the opening 15 minutes and were 52-0 ahead by half-time as they put their hosts to the sword in thrilling style.

It was a blistering first-half performance in 90-degree heat and Japan had no answer to the waves of Welsh attacks, mainly orchestrated by their man of the match, Swansea No.8 Geraint Lewis. It provided Wales with their biggest victory over Japan for a quarter of a century. Their record victory of 82-6 in Tokyo 26 years ago is now the target for Andy Moore's men in next Sunday's second Test.

Gareth Thomas, who marked his debut for Wales with a hat-trick against Japan at the 1995 World Cup, got the tourists moving with a try after four minutes, but it then quickly turned into the Shane Williams show. Williams crossed in the 17th, 38th, 47th and 66th minutes. His third try, seven minutes after the break, took Wales to a 59-point advantage. But the Japanese finally got their game together and took advantage of a tiring Welsh side to save some face with two tries through Tongan lock Luatangi Vatuvei and back row man Takeomi Ito.

It was Wales' eighth straight win over Japan, including victories at the 1995 and 1999 World Cups, and was achieved without 10 of their players who are on duty with the Lions in Australia. Swansea full back Kevin Morgan marked his return to Test duty after a two-year break with two first-half tries and Llanelli wing Mark Jones scored another. There were also tries for two of the three new caps in the starting line-up - Bath flanker Andy Lloyd and Bridgend centre Adrian Durston. Llanelli outside half Stephen Jones landed seven conversions.