Rugby World Cup 2015: Japan falling in love with the sport as Brave Blossoms aim for quarter-finals

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Japan is fast being heralded as the land of the rising scrum. From Kobe to Kyoto, from Shizuoka to Sapporo, all eyes on Sunday will be trained squarely upon Gloucester’s charming Kingsholm ground. Twenty-five million Japanese tuned in for the Brave Blossoms’ 26-5 victory over Samoa, but the magnitude of Sunday’s final pool game against the USA has created an occasion to render even the country’s beloved sumo bouts mere fripperies. A quarter-final place that would once have been inconceivable is, in the final World Cup before the tournament descends on the virgin territory of Japan in 2019, tantalisingly within reach.

Rarely, if ever, has a sport still indecipherable to many in Japan stirred public passions so rapidly. Even thoughts of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 can be deferred while this strange and wonderful diversion plays itself out. As assiduous as the Japanese are in their working lives, an estimated 20 million – roughly a sixth of the population – stayed up for a 10.15pm kick-off on a Wednesday night against Scotland, after the national side’s vanquishing of South Africa shifted rugby’s paradigm for good.

While coverage of their opponents on Sunday, the USA’s beleaguered Eagles, will struggle to merit a two-line brief in the New York Times, the match is expected to be lavished with front and back-page exposure in the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest-selling newspaper. Eddie Jones, Japan’s bluff Australian head coach, claimed after his players’ seismic upset of the Springboks on the World Cup’s opening weekend. But he has been so deluged with adoration since that he recognises that the outcome might ultimately be immaterial.

“The win over South Africa has turned the whole landscape of the sport in Japan upside down,” Jones said. “For twenty-five million people to watch a game of rugby there is unbelievable. It’s a good spot for the sport to be in. For the moment, though, we’re just going to try to beat the US – then we would have three wins, and we could inspire the next generation of young people in Japan to play. That’s pretty worthwhile. If we reach the quarter-finals, it is an absolute bonus.”

Japan beat Samoa in their last group game

 

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The outcome in Gloucester is out of Jones’ control, given that Scotland, with a superior two-point difference, can wrest the dream away by defeating Samoa in a frenetic climax to Pool B. Predictably, though, World Rugby are already beside themsevles at the unlikely fervour that Japan have created at England 2015, desperate for romantic storylines as the first World Cup to have lost the hosts at the group stage.

More people, chief executive Brett Gosper reflected contentedly, watched Japan’s encounter with Scotland than saw England’s semi-final against France in 2007. “Japan have set this tournament alight,” he said. “The boost in interest could not be better timed, with the World Cup venturing outside traditional heartlands for the first time in 2019. It has given the event a major shot in the arm.”

The win against South Africa sent shockwaves through the sport Photo: Livepic

Customarily, rugby would struggle to enjoy a ranking of even eighth or ninth in Japan’s hierarchy of sports. But it is a sign of its dramatic surge that it is beginning to rival even baseball and J-League soccer for the top spot. The organisers of the next World Cup are promising to channel their energies into introducing tag-rugby into 20,000 primary schools across the nation, with the aim of ensuring that every child has touched an oval ball by 2019. A sport whose strongest base is in colleges in corporate-affiliated teams is likely to expand far beyond.

The preparation to advance to this point has been forensic. Steve Borthwick, Japan’s forwards coach and one of the few Englishmen still with cause for pride at this World Cup, explained how the team had tried technological trick to make their breakthrough on this stage. “Compared to players in England, the Japan boys do a lot more video work,” he said. “They have their iPads and their computers, and they’re looking at footage all the time. It’s a great credit to them.”


The influence of Michael Leitch, their New Zealand-born captain whose decision to pursue the try in the final minute against South Africa proved pivotal, has been stark throughout Japan’s month in England. “Michael and the senior players have gradually taken on more responsibility,” Borthwick said. “They’re driving the standards and they’re willing to address problems. Under pressure, they have made great decisions. They have communicated and adapted brilliantly.”

Jones is too much of an arch-pragmatist, however, to be swept up in the tributes and risk becoming distracted from his more immediate task. For all the expectation that his side will eviscerate a US team whitewashed three days ago by South Africa, he is keenly aware that Japan have lost every one of their matches against the Eagles to date. “In the 2003 World Cup, they played at Gosford, north of Sydney,” he recalled. “I remember that my father went up there to watch it. Japan were the favourites to win that game and yet they got beaten easily.” A TV viewership the size of Tokyo will be desperate on Sunday to avert a repeat. This time, there is simply far too much at stake.