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.
potsie
Guest
I think the transfer of Australian and NZ players to Japan is fairly haphazard and mostly the result of NZ and Australian coaches plying their trade at variously levels of Japanese rugby and bringing over a few players known to them to play for their team and help them win games. But there is a big organised transfer that has been going on for years from Tongan schools into the Japanese universities. Every year there is a sweep of the best school-leaving players in Tonga and almost every university team has a Tongan No.8 and a Tonga midfielder (and the Universities that don't are planning on recruiting for next year). Ethnic Japanese No.8s end up spending a lot of time carry big copper kettles. The Tongan players get an almost guaranteed degree - you don't really need to study to get a degree, attendance is usually sufficient - and the prospect of a good future income. The universities and their coaches get physicality and match winners.
Danny McGowan
Roar Rookie
Absolutely and why he came in so fast probably, trying to get there before player has locked onto the ball. One of problems about the jackal etc is evryone races to either get hands on ball or clean out the player doing it, perhaps stop the jackal, and just ruck would be better? And only an idiot thinks by rucking I mean stomping on bodies etc, that has never been how you rucked, but simply blowing over the ball, would lead to mroe players having to contest and clear up backline space as well .
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Test rugby sells, it's why all the unions bring in more money than any of their clubs. There is a belief among some that if Super Rugby was more free flowing more people would watch and the game would grow more. Biggest professional league in terms of fans and finances is the T14 which is slow, brutal and a fight for every ball. The more Super Rugby tries to become running the weaker it's got in terms of product. The problem could be NZRU and RA while trying to fight league are showing fans there isn't much difference, in NH it is clear that Union is not league.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Why do you call it tv product? It’s because of attacking rugby first and foremost. Can’t get much flow with stoppages. Growth of domestic rugby is priority for Australia. I wasn’t implying the ref was biased just that Scotland made the same offence even if they’re trained by nh refs. And that pearce reffed more like sr ref
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Should have been a red but ref didn't give it and gave his justification why as did the ref for BR. In one game the commentator says the Scot is in trouble and probably a red, in the other they debate if it's a yellow or penalty. Does that mean that only NH teams benefit because one incident. Both refs have a process to go through and NH teams do still receive red cards at club and test level. I doubt the ref wanted his NH brothers to win. As you point out SR refs are more strict at internationals, whose fault is that. Players will be use to playing a certain way against a ref, NZ and Oz players needing to adjust because it's a different competition is not good for their development all because they want a better TV product
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Yeah not saying they are but we have trialed a lot of laws that the NH then rejects so we relearn the old laws again. It can't do any good
Guess
Roar Rookie
So it’s because of wr then. Fair enough. Tbh sr refs are more strict with foul play when they ref internationals but the way they ref breakdown doesn’t change much imo. Funny it was Scotland that didn’t get the red by nh ref for dangerous cleanout btw;)
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
If you ignore what the ref said about the defender being passive and RB running into him with his head down while the defender stood his ground (defender did come towards him). Believing that there is confusion about hitting a defender with your shoulder to his head may be why they are getting so many cards.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
In my view the refs that get T1 games come from the Champions Cup and Super Rugby. How refs ref champions Cup is the same way they do the tests. The way SRP refs ref SRP is different to how they ref tests. That says to me that SRP are instructing their refs differently to WR which might give a faster game at SRP but doesnt teach the players to produce the same quick ball under pressure like Champions Cup teams must. Once you lose the breakdown then you see reds like BR because they don’t know any other way to clear players as they don’t have to work so hard at the breakdown in SRP
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
SRP aren't the only one to trial laws. The head shot has been around for quite a while but players have been reffed differently in SPR than the rest of the world, breakdown also seems to be. English refs do the breakdown a bit different to URC and T14 but very small compared to how SRP does it. SRP is able to say no to trial but it is normally them that want the rule change
Danny McGowan
Roar Rookie
:thumbup:
Tim J
Roar Rookie
:thumbup:
BleedRedandBlack
Roar Rookie
NZ Herald is now reporting that Schmidt's arrival was vital in Foster keeping his job. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/the-front-page-how-close-did-scott-robertson-get-to-all-blacks-job/3KL37JYHJ34F6GITEJB7GOMDCM/ There is something vaguely heroic about Foster's ability to make a "just in time" sacrifice and get a "just in time" protection in place. Plumtree clung to, then shoved over the cliff just in time to get Robertson's man, Jason Ryan, into play. The hapless Mooar is chucked into the wilderness, maybe never to coach again at the professional level, replaced by none other than Ian Foster himself. Fox leaves as planned, but Schmidt is pulled into place just in time to convince an organisation as obsessed with micro-management as NZR that an assistant coach with international experience is more important than a head coach who knows what he is doing. It's like watching a Marvel Superhero [Or Supervillain, take your pick] dodge one bullet/missile/flying building after another. Things might get a bit squeezy in the next three weeks though. I predicted Foster would survive the TRC with 3 wins. As it turns out he won 4 and the championship thanks to a ludicrous piece of gamesmanship by Bernard Foley. But now he is into the part 3 of his NZR's Annus Horriblis, how many wins does he need to avoid the cut? Would a shaky win over Japan, a loss to Wales or Scotland, and a bad loss to England let the axe through? At that point, I think it’s a toss of the coin.
Otago Man
Roar Rookie
True HN, I just wanted to focus on the ABs side of the game. Japan are a good side and have an attractive style of play. I would love to have Himeno back at the Highlanders but their tight 5 impressed me with how they competed.
Danny McGowan
Roar Rookie
Just call me Campo, I think the problem must be that us kiwis are such nice fellas if we get ALL the breaks. There can be no other explanation ! :laughing: :laughing: Just out of interest mate no Brookes have played for ABs since the late 90s, but there you go you were obviously watching a replay of an old game! :silly: :crying:
Jacko
Roar Rookie
At the moment the ABs first 23 is a very good rugby team but get below that and it drops off a lot. Its not because the talent isnt there but its the selections and the pressure to win every game means new up and coming stars arnt being given time on the field.
adam smith
Roar Rookie
Agreed Jacko. :thumbup:
Hazel Nutt
Roar Rookie
I just meant with how often people are referring to that All Blacks lineup as a B side. All teams have to juggle injuries and blooding new players, and by my count that 23 boasted at least a dozen or more All Black regulars, so saying that was a B side and they’ll be better when everyone is back is missing the point of why Japan came close to beating the All Blacks and maybe could have if a pass was interpreted differently.
Tim J
Roar Rookie
I have not seen any disrespect shown to Japan, other players need to have experiences at this level and Japan was a good challenge for those players.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Sorry but I disagree. I don't like nh style. I get what you're saying and I'm convinced Rennie's win record affected more by nh refs than hooper himself :laughing: I once said to kiwis on here after some sr game they gonna struggle with nh refs but Australia is struggling no less lol. Even then I prefer sr style and don't want it to be messed up because of internationals. Btw I liked Australia a games refereeing. It was refreshing. Why do you think Australia and nz should look up north? Is it because of money/wr or do you think nh way is the right way?