Sawt Falasteen - Japan coach Jones says 'fair' World Cup schedule helps small teams

Organisers unveiled the fixture list for the tournament in Australia in 2027, which features 24 teams for the first time and gives all sides roughly a week between matches.

Jones was in charge when Japan stunned South Africa at the 2015 World Cup but then had only four days to prepare for their next game against Scotland, which they went on to lose.

The Australian is now in his second spell as Japan coach and he said next year's World Cup schedule was "pretty equitable" for all teams.

"We've got six days between every game, which is a fair preparation period," said the Australian, whose team have been drawn in a pool with France, Samoa and the United States.

"I remember in 2015 we beat South Africa and we were on the bus the next day to prepare to play Scotland -- that's hard going.

"Now I think it's quite equitable so I think they've done a good job."

Japan reached the quarter-finals for the first time as World Cup hosts in 2019 but they failed to get past the pool stage four years later in France.

They will start their 2027 campaign against Samoa before facing France and then USA.

Jones said his players would have to "work a little bit harder to get better" before the tournament kicks off on October 1 next year.

"Where do we want to finish? We want to go as high as we can," he said.

"There's no limit to where we want to finish. The only limit that we've got is the amount of hard work that we're prepared to do."

T.Khatib--SF-PST