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After reading John O’Neill’s latest comments about Super rugby expansion, I began to wonder about the logistics of including a Japanese franchise.
At present, the Japanese rugby season runs from September until the end of February, depending on weather conditions. It’s a lengthy season with a number of breaks in the calendar.
The Top League wraps up this weekend with the Microsoft Cup final, but the National Championships continue through til the end of the month.
Under O’Neill’s proposal, the Super 15 would run from March until August, the entire Japanese off season. While a Japanese Super rugby franchise could theoretically withdraw players from the National Championships to prepare for the Super 15 season, I’d love for someone to explain the make-up of such a side.
One idea is inviting the strongest club side to join the Super 15 competition.
Toshiba Brave Lupus have enjoyed a Crusaders style dominance over the Top League in its short, six year history and would have to be considered the best club side in Japan.
The problem with this idea is that, while Toshiba are based in Fuchu, Tokyo, they do not represent Tokyo or Kanto prefecture. They’re owned by the Toshiba Corporation.
This carries a myriad of problems, not the least of which is other companies being peeved that Toshiba is getting a piece of the Super rugby pie.
That is if they even want a piece of the pie.
Who is supposed to fit the bill for all this: the Japanese Rugby Football Union or Toshiba?
The alternative would be to select the equivalent of a national side or an All-Star team. That might seem like an unfair advantage, but a Japanese franchise would need it to be halfway competitive.
The problem with this idea is getting club releases.
Japanese rugby players are semi-professional. The only full-time professional rugby players in Japan are foreigners. The Japanese players actually have jobs within the corporations they play for. Therefore, gaining player releases would be extremely difficult.
Setting aside the fact that Japan is in the Northern Hemisphere, the Super 14 is played in its offseason and John O’Neill is asking a semi-professional set-up to join a professional rugby comp, there’s the problem of crowd numbers.
Tokyo may be a city of 12 million people, but it has a maximum rugby audience of about 15,000 for a Top League game and 40,000 for a University game.
It’s not a matter of ticket prices, either.
The average Japanese salary is about 270,000 yen a month. A ticket to a Top League game costs about 1,500 yen.
There’s no way that Japan could hold Super 15 games at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium for 1,500 yen, and while Japan’s participation in Super rugby would probably raise the profile of rugby in Japan, if Joe Public doesn’t want to pay 1,500 yen to go a game, why is he going to pay 10,000 or more to see a Super 15 game?
Tokyo doesn’t have a modern rugby stadium, and you can forget about other Japanese cities. There’s a basic lack of infrastructure to go along with the other issues.
It seems to me that either O’Neill hasn’t thought this through or is unaware of the realities of Japanese rugby and how it’s run.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.