By ohtani\'s jacket
November 18th 2008 @ 1:58am
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Kirwan’s Japan down the USA
Japan beat the United States Eagles 29-19 at Nagoya’s Mizuho Stadium on Sunday, a tremendous result for coach John Kirwan. Dealt an injury ravaged squad (seventeen, to be exact), Kirwan fielded a side containing four new caps, a new captain, and three uncapped players on the bench.
A strong defensive effort and good field position saw Japan hold on for a rare win over the United States, despite two late sinbinnings for the home side.
Kirwan later praised his side, “My exact words to the boys were ‘ugly but great.’ We often talk of courage and heart but in the second half we showed that and really stepped up with just 14 men in the last 15 minutes.”
It was the first time the sides had met since the 2003 World Cup, where the United States won 39-26, and a case can be made for the improvement of Japanese rugby due to the Top League competition (now in its sixth season) and Japan’s participation in the Pacific Nations Cup during the past three seasons.
Admittedly, the Kiwi combo of Ryan Nicholas, Shaun Webb and Luke Thompson played a huge part in shaping the win, as well as huge Tongan born No.8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani.
But Kirwan was happy with his new blood.
“The new guys fitted in and started their careers with a win,” he said. “We are starting to change the culture. If we can keep finding players like them, then we are going to be a very competitive team.”
In general, there’s been an improvement in fitness levels and professionalism, with World Cup hero Kosuke Endo spending the recent NPC season as part of the Canterbury squad. That experience paid dividends when he finished a superb break from new cap fullback Kaoru Matsushita.
The United States thumped Uruguay 43-9 the weekend before, but it would appear that the lack of domestic rugby in the US is hindering their development, despite fielding a side that featured twelve members of their World Cup squad.
In any event, it was only Japan’s fourth ever victory over the Eagles, and there’s a second Test in Tokyo this weekend to show whether there’s been a shift in tier-two rugby.
Should Japan prevail, the US simply must enter some type of IRB competition.
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USRugbyFan said | November 18th 2008 @ 9:54am | Report comment
Dissapointing loss to say the least, and there are simply no excuses. Johnson must put an emphasis on discipline, dominating the set piece, and depending against broken play if we expect to win the second test, which we should be able too.
ohtani's jacket said | November 18th 2008 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
Hopefully I’ll be at the second Test. I expect the Eagles to be pretty fired up.
Blinky Bill - Bellingen said | November 18th 2008 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
Go Japan!!!!!!!!!!
Lanky said | November 18th 2008 @ 2:30pm | Report comment
how big was the crowd?
ohtani's jacket said | November 18th 2008 @ 3:52pm | Report comment
According to the JRFU, the crowd was 5,111. The stadium capacity is 15,000.
True Tah said | November 18th 2008 @ 5:49pm | Report comment
OJ,
I just find it disappointing that the Japs really rely upon these Kiwis and Islanders to win - they have a professional comp in Japan, and the Eagles would be semi-pro at best, and yet they are not that far behind them.
When he was Italian coach, Kirwan had the reputation of stacking the team with foreigners (South Africans, kiwis, Islanders plus the obligatory Argentines) - he seems to be doing the same with the Japs.
And 5k is a bit disappointing considering that the JRU wants to host the WC.
ohtani's jacket said | November 18th 2008 @ 6:29pm | Report comment
True Tah,
Kirwan wasn’t the first Japanese coach to select foreigners, but he’s continuing to use them in key positions — first five, second five, No.8 and lock. There were two more Kiwis on the bench, fullback Bryce Robins and flanker Michael Leitch, though in Leitch’s case he came here at the age of 15, captained the Under 20 team and goes to Tokai University. Holani is a similar story, I’m not sure he came but he was schooled over here. Another New Zealander, James Arlidge, is the incumbent first five but he plays in Wales and his wife is about to give birth.
Still whenever Japan pick up a win it’s a cause for celebration and the Japanese players absolutely did their part.
5k is about what I expected. That’s the reality.
Matt said | November 19th 2008 @ 9:18am | Report comment
The Top-League crowds have definitely looked a lot more healthy this season though, from what I’ve read anyway.
The competition is still a bit light on size, but the skills look to be improving. The competition is growing quite a lot each season and there are some good quality imports there now. But it will still take another 10 years I reckon before it could possibly become a breeding ground for truely world class footballers.
If the Japanese could be brought into a SH Heineken Cup/Provincial Qualification tournament (to replace the S14) then they’d start to pick up their levels more. There looks to be some good Japanese athletes coming through, but they are just big fish in a small pond unfortunately. They need to be playing at a higher level more often to really get better. But they are improving none the less.
Mtngry said | November 19th 2008 @ 2:02pm | Report comment
maybe it is time for a return of the Super-powers Comp. Japan, Russia, Canada and USA ( was HK in there once as well?)
ohtani's jacket said | November 19th 2008 @ 4:01pm | Report comment
The crowds have been steady without being great. Crowds are mostly dyed-in-the-wool rugby fans and company employees doing their duty. Winter’s coming and with it a drop-off in numbers. For a 14 team competition it’s an incredibly long season due to the number of breaks they take, but crowds tend to pick up at the business end.
Ten years sounds right. Japanese rugby has come a long way since the 90s, but unfortunately the University games aren’t as popular as they used to be. The corporate structure is a bit of a concern too, since Sanyo merged, Toyota’s making huge losses, etc.
In an ideal world, the US and possibly Canada would take the place of NZ Maori/Junior All Blacks and Australia A in the Pacific Nations Cup,
True Tah said | November 19th 2008 @ 7:31pm | Report comment
Matt,
ideally we could have a Heineken Cup style tournament, in which the best teams from Currie Cup (SA), Air NZ Cup (NZ), Top League (Japan), the ARC?? (if we ever get it started again!), maybe teams from the Pacific Rugby Cup (there are 6 sides, 2 each from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa) and maybe the Argentines could get involved if they end up getting professional at home?
Midfielder said | November 19th 2008 @ 7:45pm | Report comment
TT
Shame on you the “ARC’s” …. you will send Sheek into a bloggers worst nightmare ……OH What could have been ! !
Ian Noble said | November 21st 2008 @ 2:52am | Report comment
Oj
Pity that RWC2011 isn’t going to Japan. All about momentum and spreading the word, it would have been great to underwrite and boost the work to date, 2015 or 2019 might be too late. As I have posted before, NZ is a beautiful country and a mature rugby nation but it is too small and insular to support a tournament of the size of the RWC and the IRB has realised it by insisting upon guarantees of profit much greater than ever before to cover the anticipated shortfall from RWC2011.
ohtani's jacket said | November 21st 2008 @ 9:21pm | Report comment
Yeah, but Ian it’s difficult to actually make a case for Japan.
Ian Noble said | November 21st 2008 @ 9:35pm | Report comment
Oj
It will be the same for any emerging nation, at least Japan has had the experience of putting on a major tournament. Many were very disappointed in England that Japan were not awarded RWC2011. It was the chance to break out of the cosy cartel known as the IRB and establish rugby as a true world game. As an sideline it would overnight have transformed rugby’s bid to ba an Olympic sport.
ohtani's jacket said | November 21st 2008 @ 9:58pm | Report comment
So they so, but an equal number of those people would like to travel to Japan as a rugby tour destination. That’s the rub.
ohtani's jacket said | November 22nd 2008 @ 10:53pm | Report comment
Japan won the second Test 32-17 at Chichibunomiya. I was supposed to go but the person who bought the tickets came down with a fever. The crowd was 11,836.
So a Test series victory for Japan. They were rapt as you can imagine. Kirwan seems to have a good rapport with his players and the team chemistry is strong.
True Tah said | November 22nd 2008 @ 11:01pm | Report comment
OJ,
glad to see the Japs win, how strong was the US side? Were Todd Clever and Ngwenye playing?
Ian,
there is a dark side to Japanese rugby which not many know about, Richard Light wrote an article about this a few years ago, the mentality in Japanese high school rugby is not one which will foster any great love of the game.
Unless this is sorted out, then the JRFU shouldn’t be involved in the showpiece rugby event.
I read that Italy is getting serious about 2015/2019 bidding and that the Italian government is really looking at getting involved as well. I hope they get the bid, it would be a success.
I also hope Argentina gets a World Cup before Japan does, they have given a lot more to the game than Japan, and it might help them set up a pro comp there.
ohtani's jacket said | November 22nd 2008 @ 11:11pm | Report comment
Yeah Clever and Ngwenya were playing. Ngwenya scored in both Tests.
Are you talking about Japanese training methods? It’s like that in all highschool sports.