How Japan can thrive after RWC
Robbie Deans expects a beefed-up Top League competition will be ‘‘the equivalent of Super Rugby’’ in 2020 and will help sustain the development of Japanese players beyond the Rugby World Cup.
Japan’s New Zealand coach Jamie Joseph has spoken of the importance of the Sunwolves’ Super Rugby involvement in preparing his players for a World Cup campaign that has culminated in a place in the quarterfinals against the Springboks tomorrow.
Joseph said the Super Rugby experience meant ‘‘we got exposed to the level of rugby that we would face at the World Cup’’.
But the Sunwolves are being axed from Super Rugby after the 2020 season, fuelling concerns about whether Japan can sustain its progress without regular involvement in elite competition.
Deans – the former Crusaders and Wallabies coach – has coached the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan’s Top League since 2014.
He said Joseph and his Kiwi assistant Tony Brown ‘‘have done a great job’’ in getting the Brave Blossoms into the playoffs for the first time. He supports Joseph’s comments on the value of the Sunwolves’ Super Rugby stint.
‘‘Any time players are exposed to a different level is good for them. They come back better for it,’’ he said.
Virtually all of Japan’s World Cup players have had Super Rugby experience with the Sunwolves between 2016 – when the franchise was first admitted to the Sanzaar fold – and 2019.
Deans said Joseph – who has also coached the Sunwolves – ‘‘basically didn’t use’’ a lot of his frontline international players in Super Rugby this year.
‘‘He opted to prepare his group by having a virtual 214-day training camp where they were playing B teams, but just worked on the habits they needed to master.’’
Japan were showing ‘‘the value of the cohesion you get out of that amount of time together’’.
Some key Japanese players have also had Super Rugby experience with overseas franchise. Flanker Lappies Labuschagne played 50 games for the Cheetahs and the Bulls, captain Michael Leitch spent four seasons with the Chiefs, halfback Fumiaki Tanaka had a similar stint with the Highlanders and hooker Shota Horie had two years with the Melbourne Rebels.
Wing Kotaro Matsushima also played five games for the Rebels and spent time with the Waratahs in Australia and the Sharks in South Africa, where he was born to a Japanese mother. Props Keito Inagaki (Rebels) and Asaeli Ai Valu (Western Force) also had some Super Rugby exposure outside Japan.
Deans – who has six Panasonic players, including Horie and star wing Kenki Fukuoka, in the World Cup squad – has seen Sunwolves players ‘‘bring back the habits, mindsets and attitudes’’ developed in Super Rugby to their Top League clubs.
‘‘What has come out of that is the level of the Top League has risen in the last five years. It’s a different competition to what it was five years ago.’’
Deans said current England coach Eddie Jones led the adoption of better conditioning while he was coaching Suntory Sungoliath before moving on to the Japan national team.
An influx of top coaches from around the world – in particular New Zealand – have led to better practices at all clubs.
‘‘Right across the board, teams have followed the model of Suntory and Panasonic. We are seeing better conditioning at every level of the game in Japan.’’
Deans believes Japan should be admitted to the Rugby Championship competition alongside the All Blacks, Springboks, Wallabies and Argentina and he shares the disappointment at the Sunwolves’ Super Rugby exit.
However, he has some confidence for the Japanese domestic game due to the influx of international-quality players.
‘‘This year’s Top League [which kicks off in January, will be the equivalent [in terms of standard] as Super Rugby in 2020.
‘‘Go back 10 years and [playing in Japan] was looked at as a twilight option where people went to finish their careers.
‘‘Now we have not only current Super Rugby players, but current internationals, coming up here and playing.’’
After the World Cup, Deans will have All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock, Wallabies flanker David Pocock and South African midfielder Damian de Allende at Panasonic.
Kiwi influence
All Blacks captain Kieran Read is heading to Toyota Verblitz while star lock Brodie Retallick will spend two seasons at champions Kobelco Steelers, alongside Dan Carter. Former All Blacks Liam Squire and Jackson Hemopo are also bound for Japan while Wallabies halves Will Genia and Bernard Foley are heading to Japanese second tier clubs.
Then there are the coaches. Steve Hansen is set to join Toyota Verblitz as director of rugby after finishing with the All Blacks. Wayne Smith is director of rugby at Kobelco Steelers, Deans is striving for Panasonic’s fourth title since 2014, Todd Blackadder – ex-All Black captain and former Crusaders and Bath coach – takes over the Toshiba Brave Lupus. Former All Blacks halfback Danny Lee is in charge of the Honda Heat and former Wellington coach Earl Va’a has the helm at the Coca Cola Red Sparks and ex-All Black loose forward Mike Brewer has taken the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes into the Top League.
Former Canterbury coach Rob Penney has just left the NTT Shining Arcs after five seasons to coach the Waratahs, and Peter Russell is head coach of Manawatu after four years at the NEC Green Rockets. Dave Dillon (ex-Bay of Plenty) is head coach at Kobe, and Kiwi Simon Cron has gone to Toyota Verblitz in the same role after working with the Waratahs.
Ex-Springboks coach Allister Coetzee (Canon Eagles) and former Bulls coach Frans Ludeke (Kubota Spears) are also in Top League jobs.
Japan’s potential continues to attract former All Blacks lock Isaac Ross, who has played for the NTT Shining Arcs since 2011.
The 34-year-old and his wife and four boys have embraced the Japanese culture and lifestyle.
‘‘We’ll be looking to retire later rather than sooner,’’ Ross told TVNZ.
‘‘There have been opportunities over here to do some coaching and that’s an opportunity that would be good for me – it’s a chance to continue to stay overseas and particularly over here in Japan.
‘‘We’re not in a rush to get back home to New Zealand.’’
Deans says ‘‘exposure to top coaching methods’’ and ‘‘rubbing shoulders with’’ top international talent can only be good for Japanese players and an improved Top League would be ‘‘an inevitable consequence’’.
Japan’s style of play has been described as the closest to the All Blacks, and that’s ‘‘no surprise’’ given the number of Kiwi coaches in Japan, says Deans, who is quick to praise Joseph and Brown for their positive tactics at the World Cup. Deans also believes Japanese players’ natural skillset allows them to adopt ‘‘the New Zealand approach’’.
‘‘They’ve always played fast – that’s the way they play here at all levels, including university rugby.’’ Deans says Japanese teams have, historically, lacked the same physicality as other rugby nations, so had been forced to develop their speed and skill.
They were once ‘‘very prescriptive ‘‘in the way they play, but there had been big improvements in decision making in recent years.
Clubs in Japan are aligned to universities so improved training methods and mindsets are being passed down to all levels of the game.
Challenges
Deans is excited at the rugby potential in Japan, but he said the Japan Rugby Union faced some important decisions to ensure the sport maintained its progress.
There has been talk of moving to a fully professional competition in Japan, but Deans suggested there was ‘‘an element of risk’’ in that.
He said Japan’s top players were employed by company teams – not the Japanese unions – and the clubs felt a corporate responsibility to release their talent to the national team.
That had allowed Joseph to have his players in camp for longer periods, ‘‘which is unique to Japan’’.
‘‘You probably heard Jamie say his players aren’t well paid by the national union, but they are well paid by the companies. This is the great conundrum [the JRU] has.
‘‘You never want to take for granted what you’ve got. The companies’ involvement is their strength.’’
Deans says 50 per cent of Top League players are professional, and the remainder are amateur. ‘‘The amateur guys work for the company when they’re not playing or training.’’ They ‘‘generally have a job for life’’ and are spared the struggles some players have once they have hung up their boots.
‘‘The companies identify with the values in the game and they want to transpose that into their workplace.’’
While Deans supports a stronger Top League, he said Japan had to avoid the mistakes made by France, which had only recently acted to restrict an overreliance on foreign players – particularly in decision making roles.
He says the critical governance issues also applied to southern hemisphere rugby authorities, ‘‘not only Japan’’, in determining the game’s direction at elite level.
Deans hoped any future decisions around Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship would be made, not just for commercial factors, but with ‘‘sincere engagement’’ in mind.