Undermine Brave Blossoms at your peril
Aheadline from an online sports column caught my eye this week. “The Springboks WILL beat Japan,” it read. Hell, that is confident, but rather arrogant. And that arrogance includes a bit of memory loss. Of course I grabbed the clickbait.
The argument was that the Boks had the Brave Blossoms for breakfast in a warm-up Test a week before the World Cup started and that the Boks outscored them by four tries to three in that famous defeat four years ago.
First of all, let’s put the 2015 argument to bed. Even if the Boks scored seven tries to one, it would not matter one little bit. They lost, finish en klaar. Rugby, as with in all sports, has a very clear rule that the side with the most points is declared the winner.
In that very same tournament, the Japanese team were humbled 45-10 by Scotland four days after denting the Boks’ pride. Guess what? Four years later they outgunned the Scots 28-21 to qualify for the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time.
Right, so much for the 2015 book, now on to 2019. Yes, the Springboks did deliver one of their better performances in trouncing the host nation 41-7, but yet that game didn’t matter one bit. Since then Japan felled world No 1 at the time Ireland. If you believe everything you read it was a home town decision to award Japan the win. Even though the scoreboard showed
Jaco van der Merwe
19-12, Ireland did outscore them by two tries to one.
Jokes aside, ever since the World Cup draw that talk around the campfire was the highly-anticipated quarterfinal between Ireland and whoever lost the match between the Springboks and the All Blacks. That picture has changed so dramatically that it was in fact Japan who ended up having the rare privilege of playing the loser of that match.
I’m not trying to imply that Japan will win the World Cup, but anybody who still writes them off does so at their peril. Agreed, the fairy tale is bound to finish somewhere, but there are no indications it’s anything near over yet.
In 2002, when Japan and Korea jointly hosted the Fifa World Cup, both host nations upset the applecart to reach the knockout stage. Japan’s ride finished there with a defeat to Turkey, but Korea were far from finished. They beat Italy in the second round before ousting Spain in the quarterfinals. They were eventually edged by Germany 1-0 in the semis, but the world 40’s joyride saw them beating three teams that featured in the world’s top eight at the start of the tournament.
People will probably say comparing football to rugby is like comparing apples to oranges as football-type upsets are just not possible in rugby. But the fact of the matter is that while Korea’s run was unexpected, Japan’s current World Cup form isn’t. The Brave Blossoms are up to No 7 in the world rankings whereas the Boks are at No 5, so there is no need for a Leicester-type story.
And yet people are still undermining Japan.
How will Japan contain the Boks up front? That didn’t bother them before.
The Boks have a better team on paper. Rugby is played on grass.
So the Springboks shouldn’t lose to Japan, hey? There is no such thing.