‘One team’ unity
THE defining moment during Sunday’s enthralling Rugby World Cup game between Japan and Scotland in Yokohama was not Kenki Fukuoka’s superb second try.
Nor was it any of the umpteen tackles put in by Luke Thompson or Ryoto Nakamura. It came 21 minutes into a game that many are calling a classic, won 28-21 by the hosts, when Koo Ji Won was forced from the field.
The tighthead prop was in tears, his game done, but the response of the Japan bench was, to a man, to run to the touchline and give the 25-year-old Takushoku University graduate a consoling hug.
The Brave Blossoms describe themselves as “One Team” and their amazing run — which has seen them advance to the quarterfinals unbeaten and as winners of Pool A — has been a collective effort, one based on the Japanese work ethic and performed by an eclectic group devoted to playing and coaching for the land they live in.
If further proof was needed, almost as soon as Koo sat down among the replacements, the man who replaced him, Asaeli Ai Valu, helped Shota Horie and Keita Inagaki force Scotland to concede a scrum penalty.
And it did not end there for the front-row union, with Inagaki then finishing off a superb flowing move involving three offloads to go over for his first try in a test match.
“He just happened to be there,” Japan technical chief Yuichiro Fujii said with a smile on his face on Monday.
“Inagaki has great skills and fitness. His role is to take the ball into contact, and his support play after that led to the try.”
Great skills and fitness were at the core of Japan’s win. Scotland had no answer to the pace at which Japan played the game in the first half, 40 minutes of rugby in which the hosts had 74 per cent of possession.
“They’re very good at keeping hold of the ball, you saw that for the first half,” said Scotland flanker Jamie Ritchie.
And when the Scots forwards started to get the upper hand in the second half, they came up against a resilient Japanese defense that fought to the bitter end.
“We have been to some dark places in preparation — pretty tough camps — and that is modern rugby,” Thompson said of the physical and mental strengths of the Japan team. “You don’t go out and do that stuff by accident, you have to earn it.”