Japan ‘brought smile to rugby’s face’
So South Africa brought their G-Game, as in Godzilla, the metaphorical nuclear monster that stomps all over Tokyo. It was a brutal crushing of dreams. The hosts are out. But we should not now forget about them, because there is so much about this Japan team that the rugby world should cherish.
As this quarterfinal went on into added time, South Africa launched another attack. The Japanese made four big tackles, one after another, and then Keita Inagaki and Asaeli Ai Valu buried the next South African ball carrier into the turf as if it were the first minute of the match. Handre Pollard took a wry look at the defiant carnage and booted the ball off the pitch.
That made Jamie Joseph, the Japanese coach, smile. He said, ‘‘I’m just so proud of my team. The courage, the tenacity. Those last two tackles just show what a tight group we are.’’
The smile slowly creased as a tear appeared at the back of the hard man’s eye. And so it is for Japan at this World Cup. For four wonderful matches they put a smile on the face of rugby. They showed that speed and skill can sometimes triumph over power. And then the force against them became too strong and a tear appeared.
There was no more symbolic sight than the lineout that started five metres in the South African half with 15 minutes of this match remaining. It smashed 40 metres down the pitch. The bleached Japanese folk hero Isileli Nakajima couldn’t even summon the energy to run fast enough to get back onside so rapidly was the maul moving. Nakajima left the pitch moments later, his head bowed.
But Japan only leave this World Cup with their heads bowed as a gesture of respect. They have set the rugby world an example of how to behave. Their fans have adopted teams and supported one and all with a graceful fervour. And the players have taught a few tall poppies what humility and dignity mean. Bravo the Canadians for following the Japanese lead and sweeping out their own changing room. A lot of teams throughout the sporting world could learn from such behaviour.
It is not a cliche to say that the Japanese are different. In a 2001 experiment two social psychologists took a group from Japan and a group from America. The two groups were each asked to look at film of underwater scenes and describe what they saw.
The Americans noticed the fish and the colour and shape and size of those fish. The Japanese saw the water and the rocks and the plants on the seabed. The Americans saw individual creatures. The Japanese saw the context that these individuals existed in.
It’s not a bad lesson for rugby to learn. World Rugby needs to see the context. There has been a lot of chatter about what Japan has achieved at this World Cup and how they should be in the Six Nations or the Rugby Championship or the Global Goldrush Games or whatever.
People have enthused about the Japanese wingers Kotaro Matsushima and Kenki Fukuoka because these are the fish of dazzling colours. It is a thrill to watch them step. It is a joy to watch their joy.
But in context this was a collective moment that may not ever happen again. It would be foolish to think that Japan can sustain this and just walk into the Six Nations and still be competitive in five years time. It
is fool’s gold.
This Japanese team is a combination of extraordinary circumstances. They have a great coaching team in Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown, who remind me a bit of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, the great English football managerial duo of the seventies. They were never as good without the other. They complemented each other perfectly.
But Brown is leaving after this World Cup to hook up with the Highlanders. Defence coach Scott Hansen is going to the Crusaders. And no one is quite sure what Joseph will do at the end of his contract.
Captain Michael Leitch said after the game, ‘‘It’s all about taking your moments.’’
Japan have taken their moment and it’s been glorious and beautiful and educational and humbling. But it’s just that. A moment.
The players went into camp for months ahead of this World Cup. They trained and trained and trained together. There is not a rugby side on this planet that know each other so well and can play off each other with such understanding. Not even the All Blacks.
But it was a one-off because Japan were hosts of the World Cup. It’s not going to happen again. The players will disband. Some might become part of the 2021 Super League, the crazy idea of the boss of Japanese Rugby. This team will decline.
But what World Rugby can and should learn is that if they paid Samoa and Fiji and Tonga and all the other second tier nations to go into camp for months ahead of a World Cup and brought in great coaches then anything is possible. The great weakness of the rugby powers is that they come together for such short periods of time. That’s why Japan could beat Ireland and Scotland and Joseph said so.
So when Steve Hansen wants his players out of Super Rugby for training sessions ahead of a World Cup, he is quite right. That time is precious. If Japan has shown the world anything, it is the value of unity and cohesion and time spent together. And I can just hear those wretched English clubs squealing with self interest as I write this – of course you can’t have our players, we have a mediocre product to sell.
You could see Japan’s extraordinary togetherness in the phalanx of their players, spearheaded by Leitch, all connected by a hand to the shoulder. It is symbolic of what international rugby could become. But it is a dream, like Japan winning the World Cup.
It is a fantasy that French club rugby and English club rugby have no intention of ever letting happen and World Rugby has not got the balls to stand up to them.
So we will remember all those beautiful tries that Japan have scored. We will remember the final invasion of the not so little green men from South Africa who strangled our romanticism as they had every right to do.
We will remember the Japanese trainer binding tape round the head of the bloodied Pieter Labuschagne at the game’s end and giving it a blessed kiss. We just don’t have to kid ourselves about the future. This is Japan’s World Cup. And let’s enjoy it just for that.