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Japanese rugby ready to rise to new heights

By Tom Vinicombe

In just over 15 months, Japan will be rolling out the red carpet for the biggest event in international rugby – the Rugby World Cup. On the back of the Brave Blossoms’ incredible win over South Africa in 2015, and the fact that the growing rugby nation will be hosting the competition, Japan will have their sights on potentially laying claim to a place in the quarterfinals for the first time in their history.

Of course, in order to make it out of their pool, Japan will likely have to achieve a victory over either Scotland or Ireland – two teams that Japan have never beaten. In 2016 Japan came within five points of toppling Scotland – their best ever result. The picture is bleaker against Ireland, with their closest match being their first ever encounter, taking place in 1995 (a 32-16 win to the Irish).

With matches against Samoa and Russia also on the cards, it’s certainly not going to be straightforward for Japan to progress to the knock-out round of the competition, but Japan are trending up and after their result against the Springboks in the last tournament, anything is possible.

The bigger question, however, is not how well Japan will perform in the World Cup, but what will happen to the team after the competition?

As it stands, Japan are playing three matches every year against top opposition, with the rest of their games being played primarily against Asian and Pacific nations. World Rugby’s new calendar for 2020 means that matches between tier two and tier one countries should increase – but without a schedule to be confirmed until next year at the earliest, it’s difficult to know how substantial this change will be.

In all likelihood, we’ll see Japan host a tier 1 nation in June (much like now), and then Japan will get to play one of the Six Nations teams in Europe come the end of the year. Even after factoring in some one-off games (it seems that Australia and New Zealand are partial to playing the Japanese every couple of years), Japan’s regular schedule is still likely to be made up of primarily weaker teams.

The smaller nations have been knocking on the door of the tier one teams for a long time now, and the reasons for keeping them out of top-flight competitions are becoming few and far between.

Certainly, the gap between some of the teams at the bottom of the top tier and those at the top of the second tier has narrowed considerably, and in some cases disappeared altogether. Italy, in particular, has won very few matches against top opposition, yet for some reason their place in the Six Nations is considered sacrosanct. In terms of raw competition, Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Georgia are very close to the top tier, if not already in it.

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The bigger issue that has been raised by World Rugby in more recent years is that of money – it’s simply not sustainable to bring in teams from nations where rugby has access to considerably less funding. This is, naturally, a reasonable concern. Rugby is a professional sport and, quite frankly, sending teams like England and Ireland to the Pacific Islands is an easy way to start haemorrhaging money (or, at least, potential earnings).

That’s not to say that the financial cost of taking matches to Samoa, Fiji and Tonga means it shouldn’t happen – far from it. Improving the overall standard of competition in world rugby and increasing the number of competitive teams will ultimately result in a better product for consumers.

At present most of the excitement from the pool stages of the Rugby World Cup comes from figuring out which team isn’t going to make it out of that year’s pool of death, given only 12 different teams have qualified for the knock out rounds in the history of the competition.

At the end of the day, money should not be an excuse for excluding improving teams from playing in the top tier – but at least there’s some merit in the argument. However, this argument certainly doesn’t extend to Japan, where considerable investment is being made into the game.

You need to look no further than the Top League, where the upper echelon of salaries is comparable to that in the world’s ‘premier’ competitions. The sponsoring companies in the Top League are household names, willing to invest copious amounts to ensure that their team is up there with the best of the best. Yes, there’s no question that the funds exist to support Japan’s move into the top there – so what’s holding them back?

Arguably, the biggest issue for Japan is that it’s a big koi in a little pond – year after year, the Brave Blossoms trounce their local Asian opposition. The closest tier one country to Japan is Australia, who are almost a 10-hour flight away, making it somewhat difficult to create a functional international competition. Of course, it ‘works’ in Super Rugby – so maybe The Rugby Championship is where Japan’s future lies.

No one is going to suggest that Japan are quite ready to foot it with Australia and co on an annual basis, but with a few years of regular tests against quality international opposition under their belts, it could well be on the cards.

What we really need to see is Japan heading to Europe come the end of every year and playing three or four matches against a string of decent opposition – think Italy, Georgia, Romania, and then one match against one of the bigger Six Nations teams.

Japan may not have been pushing for inclusion in top-flight rugby for as long as the likes of Georgia and the Pacific Island nations, but you’d be hard pressed to find a country in the world better suited to make the leap into that upper tier.

The Brave Blossoms are growing stronger by the year, the Japanese rugby economy is huge and able to sustain a first-class team, and you’ll struggle to find more passionate rugby fans anywhere in the world.

In other news:

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Jon 1 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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T
Trevor 8 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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