The Japan Rugby League announced on Wednesday that it was hoping to stage a test match between the Japanese Samurais and New Zealand in Tokyo in October.

The Kiwis are due to tour Britain in November and the JRL is hoping that the New Zealand team will follow in the footsteps of its union counterpart, the All Blacks, who played a game in Japan on their way to France and Great Britain in 2000.

The Samurais recently returned from America where they were defeated 26-10 by the USA Tomahawks in Philadelphia.

However, the scoreline was a marked improvement from the last time the two teams met in 1999 in a World Cup qualifier which the U.S. won 55-0.