Shoddy schedule makes suckers of Japan’s heroes
That’s the problem with cherry blossom. so beautiful, but never around for long enough.
Just four days after producing arguably the most epic performance in the history of the sport, the organisers of the Rugby World Cup required Japan to go again, and with a predictable outcome.
If any good is to come from this it should be a lesson learned by the hierarchy. there cannot continue to be one rule for the historical elite, and another for the new blood when this competition reconvenes in four years’ time.
It was criminal that scotland were allowed to come here rested, Japan exhausted. It ruined the spectacle and restored the Rugby World Cup to its default group-stage setting, shorn of surprise, wonder and joy.
Laughably, World Rugby are taking their event to the Far East next in an attempt to grow the game. they will grow it considerably quicker if they allow the suckers at least an even break.
Japan have given this competition too much, and been too good for the sport, to be stuffed by a middling scottish team like this.
they competed for as long as they could — until about the 50-minute stage — before fatigue overwhelmed them. scotland did, too, running in try after try against meagre resistance, and that wasn’t right. Japan were better than this, and deserved more than to be treated as second-class citizens.
scotland looked impressive after half-time but, in reality, were flattered by a mismatch. When Japan were able to compete, there were two points between the teams; in the final 31 minutes that stretched to a margin of 35. the final score, 45-10, does not reflect poorly on Japan, but on World Rugby. they have strangled the best thing about this tournament so far; and strangled it at birth.
and, yes, it was always unlikely that Japan could repeat their heroics against another top-tier team. Even if the match had taken place at the weekend — seven days after the win against south africa — the money would have been on scotland.
Giant-killing tends to be a unique event. If Goliath had been allowed a rematch, only a mug would have backed David. so Japan’s grip on contention was always going to be fragile and one stroke of bad luck could be the difference. Losing their magnificent No 8, amanaki Lelei Mafi, to injury so soon in the second half was a colossal blow.
Yet, still, it did not feel right, this margin of victory. scotland responded well to the pressure of closing the game out, and played some lovely stuff in the second half, but by then the match resembled a training-ground exercise.
Japan did not have enough in the tank to offer a genuine challenge. they were obstacles to be danced around, their red-and-white shirts no longer an echo of the proud local club, Gloucester, better resembling traffic cones, scotland weaving in and out, before touching down, beneath the posts as often as not.
there were tries from every angle and distance. a pitch-long breakaway by tommy seymour, having intercepted a pass from Yu tamura, was the most spectacular, making up for the first half when he could have scored but was taken almost into the shed by a monster tackle from ayumu Goromaru.
ah, the shed. there was much talk of the way the locals would get behind their newly adopted team but, while there were plenty decked out in everything from kimonos to rising sun headbands — and they share a cherry-hooped strip, of course — they were never really given the opportunity to find that famous voice.
scotland dominated early possession, and scoring, with a succession of penalties expertly taken by captain Greig Laidlaw, also a Gloucester man, before Japan scored a try with their first foray into scotland’s 22. a great kick from full back Goromaru brought a deep line-out, and from the drive the mighty Mafi got over. a conversion later, Japan were ahead — but that lasted just three minutes and scotland did not trail again.
at the start, penalties kept them in front, Japan making the sort of mistakes that cost south africa dearly on saturday, but once Mafi went off on a stretcher after 45 minutes following a tackle from opposite number David Denton and tiredness took hold, it felt like a door had been opened to the past, to the time when teams like Japan were at the Rugby World Cup to make up the numbers, and no more.
still, if World Rugby insists on treating them like that in the modern age, what can they expect?
as Mafi was disappearing prone down the tunnel — and sadly on to hospital — so Goromaru was standing over a relatively simple penalty, awarded for offside, and Japan moved to within two points. It was as close as the game got from thereon in. Just four minutes later, Matt scott did brilliantly to keep the ball in play, the move resulting in John hardie scoring the first of scotland’s five tries, racking up a crucial bonus point.
hardie, of course, is a controversial ringer. he is a New Zealander with a granny in Fife and was picked up via the International Resettlement department of the scottish Rugby Union, and set foot in the country for the first time this summer. In his previous career, on the other side of the planet, he stated: ‘I’ve always aspired to be an all Black but rugby can be pretty cruel at times.’
It is another element of modern rugby that makes the idea of top and second tier nations preposterous. hardie is as scottish as Japan captain Michael Leitch is Japanese.
still, the blue half of Kingsholm roared its approval and, although Laidlaw missed the conversion, scotland’s ball was rolling. six minutes later, stuart hogg burst through Japan’s defence, scotland recycled and Mark Bennett got over and under the posts. seymour’s 60-metre run was next, then Bennett again and finally, with seven minutes to go, Finn Russell, touching down beneath the posts on his birthday.
Many happy returns, Finn, although the finest present he could have received was no doubt World Rugby’s Pool B fixture list. scotland have a four- day rest period next, although a knackered Japan followed by the Usa presents a rather different challenge than south africa and scotland, back to back without respite.
It is only the minnows that get to play the elite in this way. a pity; like putting a ration on magic, or cherry blossom.