Nations Championship: Japan v Ireland, McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, Australia, Saturday, 11.10am Irish time – Live on Virgin Media One and ITV1At first glance, this might seem like the least glamorous of Ireland’s three end-of-season tour matches. Newcastle is a quieter, scaled down, though sunnier version of Sydney, in that it is primarily a rugby league town and the stadium is home to their NRL team, the Newcastle Knights. Ticket sales are apparently around the 10,000 mark. The Irish squad have also been in more salubrious bases and this game is sandwiched between the Wallabies and the All Blacks. And yet... Aside from this having the same Nations Championship points at stake as last week and next week, above all else for many individuals chances like this don’t come along very often. After this Test and New Zealand, Ireland play Argentina, Fiji and South Africa, plus a play-off match next November and then there’s only the Six Nations before two or three warm-up World Cup matches.So this seemingly low-ley game in low-key Newcastle will actually be a momentous one for many players. First and foremost, there are the four debutants – Sean Jansen, Billy Bohan, Sam Illo and Bryn Ward – who were presented with their caps in the team hotel on Wednesday.This is a huge game for them and their families, as it is for Tadhg Beirne in his first outing as Ireland captain and for Rónan Kelleher on his 50th cap, landmarks in which Andy Farrell places great store.Farrell was palpably excited about the four debutants, but also those being afforded another relatively rare chance. “There’s four firsts, but there’s also opportunities for lads to have another crack and prove to everyone that they’re here to stay.” Among this category are both wingers, Jimmy O’Brien and Jacob Stockdale, and both half-backs, Craig Casey and Ciarán Frawley. Before Frawley’s switch to Connacht and a concerted effort to make outhalf his position, this first Test start in the position gives Frawley a big opportunity to re-enter the 10 debate. Ciarán Frawley in rugby squad training on Tuesday in Sydney. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho “It is, and we want him to grab it with both hands,” Farrell said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for him and for everyone else who’s in a similar boat really about their intentions of wanting to push to start and push to be in this squad going forward over the next 18 months.“He deserves his opportunity to do this. Obviously, it’s been stop-start for him for all sorts of different reasons. But we’re super excited to see him take the reins. He has run the week really well, like we know he can.“It’s him believing in what he’s got in his locker and he’s got plenty, so getting it out there on the pitch at the weekend is something that we’re excited about.”Asked if Frawley had come out of his shell, Farrell said: “That’s certainly got a lot better over the last two years. He’s certainly demanding, coming out of himself, understands the game, what he wants to get out of his team and also himself. I’ve seen that growth from strength to strength, not just this week, but over the last six months or so.”Sam Illo is to make his Ireland debut on Saturday. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho This is also “a big game” for Craig Casey “because he’s desperate. I think sometimes he’s been a little bit too desperate to do well. I think sometimes that can get in your way a little bit. He’s been great this week, he’s trained the house down and he’s ready for a big game.” Ditto Jacob Stockdale, given the phalanx of wingers ruled out. “He’s got footwork, he’s got good hands and he’s got plenty of strength as well, so finding his way in the game is super important, that he’s able to work off his wing and get ahead of the game, see some pictures nice and early.”The weather forecast seems fair for match day, in which case Farrell expects a game in keeping with last weekend’s opening round of matches in this new competition, especially given Japan want an offloading/quick recycling game.“They’ve got a nice attacking kicking game, a nice attacking strategy as far as playing a bit wide and pushing the ball through as far as pressure is concerned and all of that.“Obviously they have a very good set-piece, lineout and scrum, so it’s a proper test match it is. Again, anyone who puts that type of score on Italy we all know how serious that is.”Billy Bohan in training at the Leichhardt Oval, Sydney. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho His Japan counterpart, Eddie Jones, was chipper about his team’s chances.“We’re really looking forward to putting in a winning performance against Ireland. If you look at the history of the games between Japan and Ireland, Japan’s only won the one game, which was in the home World Cup, so this is a great opportunity for this young team to put their name in history,” he said.He described as Ireland “a much more possession-based team than Italy were, so we’ve worked a lot on our defensive qualities, getting off the line together. We know they present multiple threats with their pod style of play and the game at the moment, with the quick ruck, is suiting attacking teams.”Their quicksilver 21-year-old outhalf Ryunosuke Ito looks a real prospect and had three try assists against the Maoris two weeks ago with a couple of cross kicks and a fizzing left to right skip pass. As well as expecting a proper Test in every sense, Farrell is not permitting the relatively small crowd to be a factor, reminding us that most of his team have played in Covid-affected times. This is opportunity knocks time, and no excuses time.JAPAN: Takuro Matsunaga; Kazuma Ueda, Dylan Riley, Yuya Hirose, Taira Main; Ryunosuke Ito, Naoto Saito; Takato Okabe, Mamoru Harada, Shuhei Takeuchi, Harry Hockings, Warner Dearns (capt), Ben Gunter, Kanji Shimokawa, Jack Cornelsen. Replacements: Hayate Era, Sojiro Otuska, Keijiro Tamefusa, Michael Stolberg, Michael Leitch, Tiennan Costley, Itsuki Kamimura, Sam Greene.IREALAND: Jamie Osborne; Jimmy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Ciarán Frawley, Craig Casey; Tom O’Toole, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson, Tadhg Beirne (capt), James Ryan, Jack Conan, Nick Timoney, Sean Jansen. Replacements: Tom Stewart, Billy Bohan, Sam Illo, Cormac Izuchukwu, Bryn Ward, Nathan Doak, Harry Byrne, Bundee Aki.Referee: Andrea Piardi (Fra)Head-to-head: Played 11; Japan 1 win, Ireland 10 wins.Forecast: Ireland to win by 10-12 points.