Māori All Blacks storm home in Nagoya thriller

What a way to start a new era. The Māori All Blacks scored four tries in the final quarter to flip a 31-14 deficit into a thrilling 38-31 win over the Japan XV at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya on 27 June, the first match with Tamati Ellison as head coach.

For long stretches it looked like the hosts' night. As RugbyPass's Ned Lester reported, the Japan XV pounced while the Māori side was briefly down to 13 players late in the first half, and young first five-eighth Ryunosuke Ito was electric, beating five defenders and setting up three tries. Kazuma Ueda, Mamoru Harada, Dylan Riley, Inoke Burua and Takuro Matsunaga all crossed for the home side, and the Japan Rugby Football Union's match report fairly called it a Nagoya thriller that could have gone either way.

Then the comeback came. Captain Bailyn Sullivan sparked it, and tries flowed to TK Howden, Sam Nock and replacement first-five Taha Kemara, whose dummy-and-step effort gave his side the lead, according to allblacks.com. With two minutes left, a huge cover tackle from prop Pouri Rakete-Stones set up the winning moment, before midfielder Xavi Taele sealed it. Earlier tries from debutant halfback Adam Lennox and Sullivan kept the visitors in touch, and the side finished with nine more offloads than the hosts, that famous Māori flair on full display.

Taele's work rate stood out too: allblacks.com credited him with 15 tackles and 13 carries for 52 metres. And there was a special family moment at fullback, where Payton Spencer, son of All Blacks great Carlos Spencer, earned his first cap, one of the young players Stuff highlighted when the squad was named.

Credit to the Japan XV as well. RugbyAsia247's review noted how much promise the young hosts showed, and players like Ito and aerial specialist Michael Stolberg look like stars in the making.

For grassroots fans back home, the message from Nagoya was simple: never stop playing until the final whistle. The new-look Māori All Blacks did exactly that.