Brothers’ shared dreams come true with a twist

The Broadhurst brothers once shared the same rugby dreams.

Growing up in Northland the siblings Michael and James wanted nothing more than to wear the famous black jersey. But life works in mysterious ways and while James became an All Black earlier this year, Michael’s dreams have materialised in a different hue, a world away from the family home where they grew up in Northland.

Michael, a year older than James, has written himself into Japanese folklore as part of the team that felled the Springboks in the greatest upset in World Cup history.

And even four days after that famous win nothing could wipe the smile off Michael’s face, not even a tough 45-10 loss to Scotland at Gloucester on Thursday.

‘‘It’s been hard because we’ve been trying to concentrate on Scotland and everyone just wants to talk about South Africa,’’ Broadhurst said, ‘‘but it’s been awesome, nobody can ever take that win away from us.’’

The day before Japan played Scotland the staff at their hotel formed a guard of honour as the team left, clapping each of them through the doors as they got out of the lifts.

Broadhurst said the enormity of what they’d done in their first match of the tournament had not been lost on the players, including the half-dozen Kiwi expats like himself, Michael Leitch, Luke Thompson and try-scoring hero Karne Hesketh. ‘‘We know we will go down in history and we’ll be talked about for a while in Japan. It feels really good mate. We are pretty much Japanese now,’’ he beamed. ‘‘It has been unreal. The reception for what we did, especially here in England and back in New Zealand.

‘‘Everyone’s on the bandwagon which is good. Good for world rugby.’’

Perhaps the only thing that could have made the World Cup better for the former Heartland XV player would have been the presence of his little brother. ‘‘It was unreal [when the made the All Blacks]. We did share that [dream] together and the family are pretty proud of us both at the moment,’’ he said. ‘‘It was unlucky [he missed the World Cup squad].

In fact, James’ bad luck continued after the All Blacks 31-man squad was announced with several head knocks while playing for Taranaki in the NPC.

‘‘He got a couple of head knocks and hasn’t been playing NPC, so even if the All Blacks got a couple of injuries and wanted to call him up I don’t think he’s 100 per cent at the moment.’’

And what about Japan’s tireless openside? He moved to Japan in 2009 after making a name for himself, mostly as a lock, for Poverty Bay and the Heartland XV and while James carved out a career with Taranaki and the Hurricanes, his older brother plugged away in the Top League.

‘‘I’ve got another season with Ricoh and we’ll see after that. My wife is thinking of going home, so we might end up going back. We are thinking about going farming, but we’ll see how we go.’’

And Broadhurst, sporting a battered and bruised face after playing two tough tests in a week, said Japan weren’t done when it came to the World Cup.

‘‘We’ve played Samoa and USA a few times over the years. We know how they operate and we know we can beat them.’’