Japan captain ‘so proud’ to be a pioneer
The reaction of her flatmate told Black Ferns co-captain Kennedy Simon everything about just how big a deal Seina Saito is in Japan.
Captain of the national women’s team, and with the record number of caps for her country (40), Saito is now on a groundbreaking expedition playing in Super Rugby Aupiki with the Chiefs Manawa this year.
Simon, already with a young Japanese talent in the form of Yu Sato living with her ahead of the club and provincial season, says you should have seen the reaction when she broke the news that Saito would also be joining the household.
“As soon as I told her Seina was living with us, she was just starstruck,” the Chiefs skipper recalls to Stuff.
“She knows that Seina’s a real big deal in Japan. So it’s quite cool, and they get to talk in Japanese every day. She’s a beautiful person, and a great rugby player.”
Saito, who led Japan at the 2017 World Cup, then featured in the 2022 event in New Zealand, and scored a try in her side’s historic match against the Black Ferns at Eden Park, is reacquainting herself with the country, nine years after a stint in Christchurch as part of an International Rugby Programme trip, where she turned out for Canterbury University.
“So proud,” she says, through her limited English, of being the first Japan player to make her way into the Aupiki competition. “It’s special for me and for Japanese rugby.”
And there was nowhere else the 31-yearold was going but Hamilton, with Manawa coach Crystal Kaua having initiated the move.
She knew Saito well, having coached her for five years at the Japanese club Mie Pearls, which also last month signed an MOU with the Chiefs to assist the development of women’s rugby in both countries.
“She is a strong woman, so she gives me confidence and power, so I like her coaching,” Saito says of “Muz”.
Allowed two foreign players in their contracted squad of 30, Kaua was not just on the hunt for any old player, noting that an import has to give them something different from what they already have in New Zealand.
“They really need to be multi-dimensional, so our internationals are always hybrid. She can play four positions, and B [Bitila Tawake, from Fiji], our other international, can play the whole front row.”
Indeed, Saito, who debuted for the Manawa at No 8 in last Saturday’s season-opening 46-24 defeat of the Hurricanes Poua in Hamilton, can not only slot in anywhere across the backrow, but is also proficient at hooker, and will cover that spot from the bench against the Blues in Auckland today, where she will go toe-to-toe with fellow Japan international Nijiho Nagata, who has joined the Blues as injury cover.
“It’s pretty impressive,” Kaua notes of the versatility of Saito, who was a hooker until a change of national coach after the 2017 World Cup, and a feeling she was too small for there.
“And what I love about her is she’s got all the technical, tactical bits, but, having been a captain, she also understands leadership, and can see it from a different lens. So she brings a lot to the club. She’s kind of a quiet assassin here, I reckon, and she’s just taking it all in and doing what she needs to for our team to be good.”
What the coach also realises is just how much extra work Saito is having to undertake behind the scenes to keep up with the plays, due to the language barrier.
She notes Saito’s “huge rugby IQ” is the key to her fitting in so well, while Simon reveals that, on second-hand intel from team-mate Grace Kukutai, Saito “is Buddhist and can meditate and empty her mind and just sit for hours”.
What, then, does this experienced campaigner make of the game in New Zealand, compared with back home?
“In Japan we have many structures, but here, no structure, just play rugby,” Saito notes with a grin. “It’s so different, Japan and New Zealand, but it’s good for me, the decision. I learn many [things] from them.
“See it, do it, coach say that. It’s fun, but it’s difficult, it’s so fast.”
Saito hopes her move to New Zealand will be followed by plenty of other women in the near future − a sentiment shared by Simon, who Kaua notes was one of the first players to open the door between the two countries when she jetted to Japan on her first year out of Hamilton Girls’ High School.
“Well, I hope so, because then there’s that incentive that we could extend our competition to Japan,” Simon says. “But, you know, baby steps.”