- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Pumas beat the All Blacks in New Zealand this year. And Ireland beat them there, too. And in the 2015 World Cup, Japan beat the mighty Springboks of South Africa.
But none of these results would have come close to the level of upset had Japan’s finely-named Brave Blossoms beaten the All Blacks in front of 65,188 appreciative fans at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday evening.
As it was, the Kiwis held on for a 38-31 win; but had the Blossoms not coughed up the ball as they ran through the black line with seeming impunity in the final minutes, the upset was well and truly on.
And it was on from minute one to minute 81.
“They’re developing really well,” All Blacks hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho – who started the match after Dane Coles was injured in the warm-up – said of his opponents.
“We’re happy to get the job done. It was frustrating, we didn’t get our game rolling and play how we wanted.
“We’ll have to look at the tape and go back to the drawing board and come back better next week.”
The Blossoms’ defence was staunch. They made almost three times the tackles as New Zealand. They scrapped at the breakdown, gave away penalties. They won the ball, and celebrated when they did.
Blossoms No.8 Tevita Tatafu had a whale of a game: a big unit, he went forward like a massive rolling rock – that thing from Raiders of The Lost Ark, say. Good player.
No.7 Kazuki Himeno was better. A super openside, a scrapper, a pilferer. He matched Sam Cane all night, and arguably beat him.
If they’d held onto the ball better, they may have won.
The All Blacks were missing several starters, the Barrett brothers not the least. But they looked listless – and with better hands the Blossoms would have scored more points.
“Maybe our minds were a bit cluttered,” Richie Mo’unga said.
“The Japanese were really good and stopped our momentum.”
The All Blacks opened the scoring when Taukei’aho made good on his last-minute call-up, busting the line and fidning Brodie Rettalick, who ran 20 metres to score.
Braydon Ennor then extended the lead for the All Blacks after a pass that looked forward by Richie Mo’unga. There followed a brilliant try by Sevu Reece after a mighty long throw by Taukei’aho hit Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, who popped inside for the hard-charging Reece who ran it in.
Down 18-3, many teams would have played damage control. The Blossoms just played.
They won a turnover on their 30m and went the length of the field, getting the bounce, hacking the ball downfield before Takuya Yamasawa got a kind bounce and scored.
When centre Dylan Riley, probably his team’s best, made some yards left, it set up halfback Yutaka Nagare for a try.
At half-time it was the ABs by four, and anyone’s game.
Hoskins Sotutu of New Zealand scores a try. (Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)
All Blacks assistant coach Scott McLeod said the first 30 minutes were good – and the next 10 minutes were bad. He urged the players to be more ‘direct’. They took it on board, and Caleb Clarke powered over shortly after half-time.
Still the Blossoms came at them. Himeno won a penalty at the breakdown that David Pocock would have enjoyed. Warner Dearns got his team back within four points again when he charged down Finlay Christie’s box kick, was surprised and delighted the find the ball in his arms, and scored.
The All Blacks weren’t done. They didn’t want to make history – or be on the end of it. No.8 Hoskins Sotutu rumbled over.
Aaron Smith came on. Rettalick went off – red-carded for a cleanout on Himeno’s neck.
When Himeno scored. With two minutes to go it was a four-point game.
The All Blacks kicked long. Eighty minutes went up on the clock. Japan had to go 70 with a hot potato. It was not to be.
New Zealand forced a penalty at the breakdown and Mo’unga kicked it.
Riley was sanguine after the match – ad didn’t seem surprised about his team’s effort.
“We trust our game and we trust each other,” he said.
“We spent some good weeks in camp. And we’ll look to keep going and build on this performance in our overseas games [against England and France].
“Our fitness, our game’s built on it. We like to play fast and flowing rugby. Our game leaders did a phenomenal job for us. The atmosphere here was unbelievable. Biggest crowd I’ve ever played in. It’s a great feeling.
Asked if the Blossoms believed they could beat the All Blacks, Japan coach Jamie Joseph said “absolutely”.
“Going into it there were nerves,” he said.
“Against the All Blacks, some of the younger guys were anxious. But they began to believe and played some great rugby. I thought our set piece was great. Scrum was great. We shut down their lineout.
“We do a lot of fitness and a lot of contact work because we’re not as big as opposition teams. You play the All Blacks and close your eyes, make some mistakes… the difference was the errors.
The final margin was seven points. It felt a lot less than that.