Rugby’s new dawn awaits only if hosts Japan join the party
● Eyebrows were raised in 2009 when Japan was announced host country of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
It immediately promised to be a landmark event. Rugby’s tightly knit old boys club finally relented and allowed their quadrennial jamboree to take place outside a traditional stronghold by affording an Asian country hosting rights for the first time.
The decision was made not a moment too soon. For rugby to grow, the showpiece event had to be staged for new eyeballs.
By handing Japan hosting rights the sport would be coaxed from its narrow sphere of familiarity. Starting next Friday, Japan will demand that World Rugby, as custodians of the game, and the world of rugby at large, vacate their comfort zone and embrace fresh, if not peculiar challenges.
Apart from the RWCs played in New Zealand and Australia, this year’s tournament will be contested in a markedly different time zone than the one in which the Home Unions operate.
Travel times to Japan are demanding, while the tournament itself is likely to be played in stifling humidity and capricious weather. Japan is also prone to natural disaster, but let’s not go there.
Language and cultural barriers are likely to play havoc with teams, spectators and the media.
Though the hosts, for the first time in the tournament’s history, will start as unlikely quarterfinalists, the players at this RWC can expect fervent, if not fanatical support.
If the Boks’ warm-up game against Japan, as well as the attendances at some practice sessions are anything to go by, the host country is firmly in the grip of rugby fever.
That will only intensify if the hosts, the Brave Blossoms, can repeat their heroics from four years ago by winning three pool matches. Should they reach the knockout phases this time, there will be bedlam in Japan.
First however they have to negotiate Ireland, Scotland, Samoa and Russia. Their match against the Scots will arguably decide their fate.
Under wily Kiwi coach Jamie Joseph, Japan are a team on the rise and until last week’s match against the Boks they were unbeaten this year.
They’ve been dining on “The miracle of Brighton” win over the Boks at the last RWC and have built on that performance, winning 18 of their 31 matches since that tournament.
That win percentage is better than many teams in the pecking order higher than the 10th-ranked Brave Blossoms. They have however recorded just one victory over a top-tier nation in that period.
They have one of the most experienced squads in the tournament. The average age of the squad is 28-and-a-half years of age.
They have a dearth of home-ground talent in the second row but one of their areas of strength is in the backrow. There they boast the skills of captain Michael Leitch, Kazuki Himeno, the bellicose Amanaki Mafi and former Bulls and Cheetahs flank Lappies Labuschagne.
They also possess pace on the periphery with Kenki Fukuoaka, even at the age of 33 showing no signs of slowing up. His 21 tries in 33 Tests represents a remarkable strike rate.
Japan will play a quick tempo game that will likely make their opposition huff and puff. Their scrum may come under intense scrutiny but the bigger question in the global scheme of things is how will the world come to grips with
Japan?