Japan eye new Boks KO despite friendly loss

SOUTH AFRICA were left so spooked by their last World Cup meeting with Japan that they came up with a plan to erase the horror memory before this year’s tourney.

Springboks bosses looked at the draw and realised they were likely to meet hosts the Brave Blossoms – four years after one of the sport’s biggest upsets.

Japan famously beat South Africa in Brighton in 2015 and the sides square up again in this weekend’s quarter-finals.

It won’t be their first meeting since then though, with the Boks having arranged a friendly with Japan just two weeks before this year’s event started, running out comfortable 41-7 winners.

South Africa boss Rassie Erasmus admitted: “The reason was to erase the Brighton game, so if we do play them then that match hopefully doesn’t get mentioned again.”

It was a nice try and might have worked had Japan struggled as much with the weight of host nation expectation as England did four years ago.

It could have been successful had Japan not beaten Ireland, a side ranked No.1 in the world a fortnight ago, then added the scalp of Scotland on Sunday.

For all that, and Japan becoming the first team from Asia to make the quarterfinals, last month’s friendly might have served a purpose. But not now.

Nobody is looking ahead to Sunday’s last-eight tie in Tokyo and thinking of last month’s meaningless friendly meeting BY ALEX SPINK which South Africa won easily. All the talk is of Brighton: The Sequel as the host nation prays for another miracle.

Since that heady day on the south coast the extraordinary has become almost ordinary.

There has been Trump, Boris and Brexit, Leicester have won the Premier League, Chicago Cubs the World Series.

But arguably none caused more of a stir than Japan, without a World Cup win for 24 years, beating two-time world champions South Africa 34-32.

Eight days earlier Eddie Jones’ Japan had left Tokyo with players questioning why they had been made to travel in suits, given there was not a soul to see them off. The coach explained: “When we leave we’re going out in our suits with our heads held high.

“Because when we come back we will have changed history.”

The last-gasp victory was born out of two conversations.

The first was between Jones and his players over a period of weeks, breaking down the mystique of the Springboks and creating a “beat the Boks” routine which sent Japan into the game convinced they could win.

The second took place over coffee between Jones and captain Michael Leitch on Brighton beachfront the morning of the game. The coach told his skipper: “Look, mate, we’ve got nothing to lose. If you think we should have a go, have a go.”

With 13 seconds left in the game and Japan down 32-29 they were awarded a penalty. In the stands Jones screamed to his coaches “take the three”.

Leitch, though, remembered Jones telling him to “go with your heart” and signalled for the scrum. The ball came out, Japan went left, right, then left again.

This time they had numbers and Karne Hesketh was over.

Whether confidence, conviction and a good gameplan is enough to get them past South Africa a second time we will have to wait and see. But the Boks won’t be sleeping easy.