Japan Rugby World Cup: Michael Leitch led Japan to key conquests at the last two World Cups. The next World Cup is in 2023 in France, and Leitch has a communication: Don’t overlook Japan. In 2015, Japan defeated South Africa in the English coastal town of Brighton, which lives on as the Brighton Miracle. In 2019, its group-stage wins over Ireland and Scotland accepted it to the quarterfinals and brought rugby into the day in Japan.
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Leitch is no longer the skipper but is still a player and a key member of the team. He looks forward to the competition where Japan is haggard in Group D with England, Argentina, Samoa, and one other qualifier. The underdog tag doesn’t rankle Leitch nor does he see it as suitable.
I reason Japan is sole because I think we’re everyone’s second favorite team, Leitch told reporters this week, speaking from Tokyo. We still are regarded as an underdog contempt having had two fruitful Rugby World Cup campaigns. It’s a hard one to brush off.
Michael Leitch
Subconsciously when you think of Japan your involuntary thought process is not a big, physical side that’s going to dominate teams, he added. Leitch said it’s problematic to judge where Japan stands in its Rugby World Cup preparation likened to the build-up to 2019. Then, as Japan prepared to host the world tournament at home for the first time, a sense of earnestness and purpose motorized the campaign.
The years since haven’t worked to Japan’s benefit in the same way. COVID-19 shut international borders and Japan went 18 months without a test match. Its ability to present new players was impaired but Leitch trusts things are now on course. In 2019, having the home benefit and everyone counting on us to grow the Japanese rugby World Cup we had a lot of access to capital and time away from clubs, he said. Clubs weren’t reluctant to release anyone.
This time it’s a bit different with COVID, he added. It’s really hard to the device where we are with our groundwork but with the time, we have been together we’ve made incredible progress, Leitch said Japan can be self-assured in the players it likely will take to the World Cup. Many already have World Cup experience while younger players have had the chance to play beside or against some of the world’s top players in Japan’s rapidly refining professional league.
Japan Rugby World cup
I’d say we’ve got fairly a good core of players that have been complicated in both the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cup, the mainstream in 2019, Leitch said. I think that the knowledge and experience that we have is going to be crucial in 2023. We’ve got about great up-and-coming players who have got real X-factor, he added. Japan’s image is that it relies on speed rather than carnality, but Leitch said that is changing. To Know more about Japan Vs Samoa Tickets click here.
Everyone paints an image of Japan as not having that physical edge, but we’ve proven in the past that we can box above our weight, he said. It’s not about being quicker or more physical than the antagonism. For us, it’s about being keener, picking our moments and discovering the right area. One of the advantages that the Japanese team has is that we’re very tactically flexible. Strategies will no doubt change against each opponent. I wouldn’t be concerned about our fitness or lack of fight in any of those competitions.
Japan Rugby World Cup: Japan has been left behind meanwhile the last World Cup warns Jamie Joseph
The pandemic has stunted Japan’s rugby growth and the 2019 quarterfinalists are now clearly behind in their arrangements for next year’s World Cup, head coach Jamie Joseph warned on Tuesday. Japan played no games in 2020 because of coronavirus limits, denying them the chance to build on their historic run to the last eight in the previous year’s World Cup on home soil. They achieved seven matches in 2021.
But Joseph fears his team has lost crushed against the world’s best, as they look towards next year’s World Cup in France. One of the biggest tests that I’ve faced since the Rugby World Cup in 2019, like a lot of other persons around the world in sporting teams, is the pandemic, said former All Black Joseph, announcing his team for four home Test matches, against Uruguay and France. The first year we had no rugby, last year we played seven games, and so we are behind in terms of our growth.
Japan has been haggard in a World Cup group with England and Argentina, together of whom have seen regular action in the Six Nations and Rugby Championship throughout the pandemic. Joseph said the games against Uruguay and Six Nations champions France would give Japan an accidental to test new players and grow complexity in all positions. The New Zealander on Tuesday picked two squads a full Test-match squad and a growth squad in a bid to run the rule over as many players as likely.
South African-born duo Pieter Labuschagné and Gerhard van den Heever are in the Test-match team
While Wimpie van der Walt and Shane Gates are in the growth squad. Meanwhile, there are a few Australian-born players on the Test team as well. They are Jack Cornelsen, Ben Gunter, and Dylan Riley. The growth squad will face a team of Japan-based Tongan players in an aid match in Tokyo on June 11.
Joseph said the choice to axe the Japan-based Sunwolves from the Super Rugby club competition in 2020 has made it very difficult to find competitions of substance that prepares players for Test matches. You sort of roll with the hits as a coach and what I’ve tried to do to be able to counteract that is to pick two squads and create more competitions as best we can, he said.
12 days of rugby: Japan shocks the Boks at the World Cup
With the celebratory season in full swing, it’s time to continue our 12 days of rugby. Next up, it’s Japan’s stunning win against South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.
Japan Rugby World Cup: Lead-up to that special rugby moment
These two teams came into the global centerpiece at opposite ends of the spectrum with Japan amongst the competition’s also-rans while the Springboks were one of the favorites to lift the trophy. With the Brave Blossoms being overwhelming underdogs, the 1995 and 2007 Rugby World Cup Winners South Africa were expected to run brutal over their adversaries.
This fitting in Brighton was the opening match of Pool B and with Scotland, Samoa, and the USA also in their group, the Springboks were hoping to issue a cautionary to their other group competitors by racking up a big score against Japan. However, there was a big cautionary sign for the Boks ahead of their World Cup opener when six weeks before they faced Japan, they suffered a shock 37-25 overthrow against Argentina in their last match of the 2015 Rugby Championship.
The Boks did not heed that cautionary and were made to pay for it. From the outset, the Brave Blossoms showed that they meant business, and the match was evenly poised at half-time with the Boks landing a slender 12-10 lead. While most rugby enthusiasts expected South Africa to pull away after the interval, it wasn’t to be and the sides were stalemated at 22-22 by the hour-mark with Japan still in the contest thanks to precise goal-kicking from Ayumu Goromaru.
Captain Michael Leitch
Who, apart from a first-half try from captain Michael Leitch, had kicked all his team’s points up to that stage. South Africa struck back with a rehabilitated try from Adriaan Strauss but Japan wouldn’t surrender and in the 69th minute Goromaru crossed for another five-pointer which he duly rehabilitated before the Boks responded with a Handre Pollard penalty that gave his team a 32-29 lead in the 73rd minute. The game’s closing stages were tense with the Boks defensive frantically inside their half.
When the match went into additional time and Japan was awarded a penalty, head coach Eddie Jones sent an instruction from the training box for them to take a shot at goal. Captain Leitch defied his orders by kicking for trace inside his opponents’ 22 and after winning ownership at the lineout they set up several phases while consuming away at the Bok try-line.
The ball eventually touched Karne Hesketh, who scored out wide despite a desperate cover tackle from JP Pietersen, and wild celebrations ensued as the Brave Blossoms attained what many viewed as impossible. To Know more about Japan Vs Argentina Tickets click here.
Why it will live long in the reminiscence
As far as Rugby World Cup surprises go this one goes down as the main shock in the history of the global competition and it’s arguably the biggest upset ever in rugby union. The Springboks are statistically the second most successful team in Test past behind the All Blacks and that full-blooded and the fact that it was the first time they faced Japan on the international stage led to them underestimating the Brave Flowers.
Apart from appalling the Springboks, the Brave Blossoms also surprised the rest of the world as very few people predicted their victory. In a battle of conflicting styles, this Test’s outcome has a lesson in it and that is that size doesn’t always matter. Springboks head coach Heyneke Meyer persevered with his strategy of choosing a big set of forwards and employing a conservative game plan with plenty of kicking for territory from their fly-half. That method played into Japan’s hands as Jones selected agile players best suited for the team’s extensive style.
Jones
Jones merits all the praise for his side’s triumph and although he wanted them to go for the draw by slotting the penalty in the game’s dying moments, he conceived this win and was spot on with his tactics. Although the Brave Blossoms went on to beat Samoa and the United States, they failed to qualify for the quarter-finals after a big defeat to Scotland in their other pool game.
But despite that, they made their mark on the Rugby World Cup with that victory over the Boks and raised rugby’s profile in Japan with many more people taking an interest in the game after that clash. That momentous day was immortalized when a film based on the match The Brighton Miracle was released in 2019.
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