Rugby World Cup: How Japan became a force to be reckoned with
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By Oliver Trenchard
Japanese Imperial author
That is not a miracle.
So read Japanese papers since the Brave Blossoms booked a place in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals for the first time with success against Scotland.
The Japanese people and media are waking up their rugby team.
But this did not occur.
Agility and the acceleration of Kenki Fukuoka and star wingers Kotaro Matsushima, coupled with all captain along with also back-rower Michael Leitchs leadership, deserve but there is more to this Brave Blossoms compared to their poster boys.
Japan possess ball-playing capacity from 1 to 15 – and on the replacements bench.
They have to rival that of opposition backs, capable of several outrageous offloads as shown by hooker Shota Horie against Scotland.
The Brave Blossoms understand their strengths are keen to maximise time, transferring the ball from the region of contact and lie along with their fitness.
After getting the pool stages sporting story, the hosts face winners South Africa at the last eight. BBC Sport looks at the causes of Japans increase.
Launching the Sunwolves into Super Rugby a few months after the 2015 tournament has brought benefits.
The players are examining themselves a luxury they would not have with League soccer, against hemisphere resistance .
Though the Sunwolves will no longer take part in Super Rugby from 2021, they have played a role in Japans World Cup preparations.
An additional alignment between also the Sunwolves across the previous two seasons and the national group has seen head coach Jamie Joseph and helper Tony Brown carrying the reins of both teams, leading becoming an expansion of their Brave Blossoms.
Much of handling Japan have produced in the World Cup and the flair has been in Super Rugby.
Joseph and Brown even had the luxury prior season of choosing which players showcased for its Sunwolves, pulling out the vast majority of Japans World Cup squad for a set of intensive training camps and enabling that the Brave Blossoms to best those set-piece routines and backs moves, also make them the fittest team in the tournament.
Where rugby has benefitted from coaches it is not that the Sunwolves.
The most successful Super Rugby coach by number of names, robbie Deans, key to the development of wing Fukuoka and forwards Horie and Keita Inagaki and continues to be at the helm of Panasonic Wild Knights at the Top League because 2014.
Meanwhile, among the players of the tournament so far, Kazuki Himeno, has 2007 World Cup-winning coach Jake White to thank you for his development.
White was appointed head coach Toyota Verblitz at 2017, whom Himeno united in April this year straight from university.
Just one month later, he was appointed captain White, saying that it was alarge opportunity for him to develop.
The fought to handle the captaincy but began reading books on leadership staying at night in cafes and building a group.
After making his debut Verblitz in the 24, he was rewarded with his original Brave Blossoms call-up.
He has continued on his meteoric trajectory with his work in the beating.
While Joseph and Brown will get the headlines its been the scrum where the Brave Blossoms have enhanced beneath their tenure.
Shin Hasegawa is the man responsible for their scrum that is Japanese. Cutting on a menacing figure in a suit and tie the conclusion of the seat on Sunday of Japan, the prior prop is not the type of person you would wish to bump into at night down a subtropical Tokyo street.
Having played in the 1999 World Cup alongside Joseph for Japan, Hasegawa realised that the Japan scrum was overpowered by opponents.
After turning them into a title contest using all the scrum in the league and overhauling Top League group Yamaha Jubilo, Hasegawa was called upon by Joseph in 2016 to help the Brave Blossoms scrummaging.
Conscious that Japanese gamers will normally be of greater stature than their opponents, Hasegawa has contrasted his scrummaging approach with Japan to some punch, in whichpunching faster will cause more effect thanpunching harder.
His breakthrough came in just two Tests against Ireland.
Japan were overpowered at the scrum at the first Test. However, a shift in the angle of the hooker saw the week, the Brave Blossoms compete. It was then the Japan forward realised his capacity.
South Africa lovers with painful memories of 2015 will likely be glad to remind Japan that lightning does not strike twice.
However, the Brave Blossoms have beaten Scotland and Ireland in Pool A and will fancy their odds of maintaining another scalp that was tier-one Sunday.
The rematch of the Brighton miracle comes together with all the Springboks cantering into a victory on that occasion 44 days after the teams met at a pre-tournament warm-up game.
This was far from the situation Though the margin of success that evening in Kumagaya would indicate a same-sex event.
Japan enjoyed twice as much land and won as many rucks, outstripping the resistance in every statistic from breaks.
The area was with all the visitors, about the scoreboard.
With the thats come with topping Pool A, Japan will be eager to make amends for your defeat a month.
Their lineup was perfected over the course of their four victories, with the handling skills of centres Ryota Nakamura and Timothy Lafaele overriding to Fukuoka and Matsushima being awarded attacking chances.
Never has rugby received this amount of vulnerability in Japan. The nations robustly healthy newspaper business has plastered the red and white of Japan all whilst television recordings have been obliterated for Brave Blossoms games.
Sundays win against Scotland saw 53.7% of the country tune in, making it the most watched television programme of the calendar year domestically.
Viewership has improved game-on-game for Japan matches together with Sundays audience currently more than double that of the match, during the pool phase.
Rugby has captured the hearts of this nation.
When lugging around major sporting events the term legacy can be tarnished with an awareness of platitude. This is uncharted territory for rugby, whose job it will be to make sure that the sport is not being followed by these lovers every four years.
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