Rugby world cup
THE noise in the City of Toyota Stadium on Saturday evening was phenomenal as just over 35,000 frenzied Japanese fans roared their side to a bonus-point victory over Samoa thanks to a controversial try in the fifth minute of injury time – and it is going to be even noisier a week today when Jamie Joseph’s side take on Gregor Townsend’s Scotland in front of almost 70,000 supporters in Yokohama, knowing that a first-ever World Cup quarter-final appearance is up for grabs.
It is a factor that Scotland will need to be ready for, because although the host nation’s supporters are far too polite to be hostile to the opposition, their natural reserve does go out the window when it comes to getting behind their own side. With so much national pride – plus an opportunity to see their team achieve something which has never been done before – at stake, the atmosphere is certain to be at an electrifying level that few, if any, of Townsend’s squad have ever experienced before.
“It’s unbelievable,” says secondrow James Moore, who only qualified to play for Japan on residency grounds three months ago and earned just his sixth cap against Samoa, with the 26-year-old fairly wide-eyed about the whole culture surrounding the Brave Blossoms.
“Japanese rugby fans are definitely the best in the world,” he adds. “When you’re out on the field you try to block it out and just focus on playing rugby, but sometimes it’s hard with how loud it is.
“You do have a really good feeling when you go out because everyone is cheering you.
“Even in the warm-up, you’re pretty pumped up because of it. It’s a good feeling.”
In truth, rugby has struggled for a number of decades to permeate its way through Japanese society, meaning it still lags some way behind baseball, soccer, tennis, sumo, golf, motor racing, boxing and pro-wrestling, as well as several other sports, in the national consciousness.
But for those who have bought into the sport, these are giddy times leading to a bizarre situation of the players finding themselves confined to barracks at the team hotel.
“It’s a little bit weird,” smiles Moore. “We usually go out for a coffee on game day, but we couldn’t leave the hotel on Saturday because there was about 1,000 people outside. It’s a bit like being held hostage, but it’s something we can deal with.
“There is a lot of pressure,” he adds. “We’ve been saying we’re going to try and make the quarter-finals and that has always been our goal. So, there is pressure to fulfil that goal and there is obviously more pressure with this being a home World Cup.”
Japan’s sensational win over pool favourites Ireland in their second match has also ramped up expectation levels, both within and outwith