Japan Rugby

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

During the June international window, the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium festival will again take place after last year's successful Waratahs v Suntory game, this time with a double header on 17th June NEC v Waratahs, and Suntory v Brumbies.

http://chichibunomiya-minato-rugby-fes.jp/?page_id=1903
Scroll down to see the English part of page.

[DotJP Profile]

Sunwolves can't win at all.

On the other hand, matches for over 80-year-old players are held at 7 and 8 April.

[DotJP Profile]

Today, USA Rugby announced Andrew Durutalo retired from international rugby 15s. This is sad news because he graduated from a Japanese University and he has many fans in Japan too. He was a great player in Sunwolves.

[suofficer Profile]

he's just signed to go back to ealing trailfinders? they're intent on getting upto the premiership.

[DotJP Profile]

As a Japan team, Panasonic Wild Knights will take part in World Series Rugby on 17 August at nib Stadium, Perth.

[Canalina Profile]

Italian federation released an excellent media guide in view of the japanese tour. There are also all the head-to-head of the Brave Blossoms with all the other national teams, if it may interest you
To download the guide you have to click on the image in the link, the one with the japanese and the italian players http://www.federugby.it/index.php?optio ... 18&lang=it

[Canalina Profile]

Is there a chance to have a live streaming for this saturday's Yamaha Jubilo v Italy?

[Hinato Profile]

Le XV de départ de Yamaha Jubilo qui affrontera la sélection "Italia XV" samedi à Nagano. A noter l'absence de Ayumu Goromaru. Chaque équipe aura 26 joueurs (15 titulaires et 11 remplaçants) sur la feuille de match.

[DotJP Profile]

Results in June

15s
Italy 52-19 Yamaha Jubilo(a club team)
Italy 17-34 Japan
Italy 25-22 Japan
Georgia 0-28 Japan

U20
New Zealand 67-0 Japan
Australia 54-19 Japan
Wales 18-17 Japan
Georgia 24-22 Japan
Ireland 39-33 Japan
*12th and Japan team will take part in Trophy next year.

Club matches
Waratahs 26-29 NEC Greenrockets
Brumbies 26-28 Suntory Sungoliath


10s
Beachcomber World Club 10s
1st Bulls, 2nd Newcastle, 3rd Kobelco Streeters, 4th Tsunami Pyrenees


Japan team has problems of especially bringing up youth players.
In addition, the deadline of lottery type selling of WC 2019 tickets is 26th June.

[RugbyLiebe Profile]

Japan team has problems of especially bringing up youth players.

Why dou actually think so? To me as an outsider a one-point loss against Wales and a loss within a try against Ireland would show me the opposite tbh.

U20
Wales 18-17 Japan
Georgia 24-22 Japan
Ireland 39-33 Japan

[DotJP Profile]

Japan team has problems of especially bringing up youth players.

Why dou actually think so? To me as an outsider a one-point loss against Wales and a loss within a try against Ireland would show me the opposite tbh.

U20
Wales 18-17 Japan
Georgia 24-22 Japan
Ireland 39-33 Japan

First, recently, Japan youth team goes up and down between U20 Championship and U20 Trophy. 2013 and 2014 were in Trophy, 2015 and 2016 were in Championship, 2017 was in Trophy, 2018 was in Championship, and 2019 will be in Trophy. So this team don't progress.

Second, Japan team has a problem in how to gather players, because almost all of them are college students and they can't make much time to concentrate to prepare U20. And top league's teams(including Sunwolves) basically don't have youth team too. They can't support youth players well.

Third, they are not satisfied with fighting well against T1 nations(including Georgia). If they were, they couldn't win forever, because T1 nations are so strong more than numbers of score, for example aspects of skills, strategies and physical abilities.

[JamesWales Profile]

A little disappointed by Japans attendances in the recent June Internationals. Not bad for the first two games, but I think the last one against Georgia did look pretty sparse, with areound 14,000 in a 45,000 seat ground.

Appreciate it's the third and final game in succession, football world cup is understandably taking the headlines, and Georgia aren't the biggest name in world rugby, but still.

[DotJP Profile]

I agree. Even though it was a rainy day, Aichi prefecture is one of large population areas in Japan. But there were not much spectators.

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

A little disappointed by Japans attendances in the recent June Internationals. Not bad for the first two games, but I think the last one against Georgia did look pretty sparse, with areound 14,000 in a 45,000 seat ground.

Appreciate it's the third and final game in succession, football world cup is understandably taking the headlines, and Georgia aren't the biggest name in world rugby, but still.

Very disappointing after large crowds in Oita (mysteriously JRFU only quoted about 25K crowd when media and everyone there was saying definitely low to mid 30K. Only union I know that under-announces it's home game gates!!), and Kobe. having said that 11K for that great game in Houston v SCO was poor after they have had 16-17K at the same venue before and the team is on a 7-0 run, and is one of the strongest in US history. For the game in Toyota, it's also a disappointing crowd not just due to the large population in the area but also given Aichi has one of the bigger rugby communities in Japan too.

But even when they played SCO in 2016, only 6 months after that nice RWC15 result v RSA, they still only got 25K, when one would've expected 30K plus for such a game. Even though Japan has become generally more competitive, I think a lot of Japanese people still don't trust the team to be able to consistently beat T1 teams yet, and still regard the result v RSA and T1 teams as a one off. Also the JRFU I suspect is still not that effective with marketing the game to the masses even though Japan games are at least more readily viewable on free to air channels now so the team has more visibility than say 10 years ago. Lastly, like the US, I think the JRFU still has a problem connecting with its rugby community in building support for the national team, hence both teams, despite better on field performances aren't taking their community with them in terms of support at NT games. In Japan there have always been other club or uni games still going on in the same city on the same day (even same time!) as the test match which is just ridiculous. Wouldn't surprise me if that happened in Aichi and even if a significant number of say junior players and their parents weren't even aware Japan was playing Georgia in the same area. When I was in Japan, everyone was in their own little silo.

[DotJP Profile]

I don't know which is better choice but, as you say, day games may have problems to increase spectators. Ayumu Goromaru suggested national team's games be held as night games, because kids have rugby schools and adults have their own matches in the saturday and sunday's daytime. By the way, at 26th October(Fri), an autumn test match is planned at Hanazono Rugby Stadium, and it is a night game.

[welshdragon2000 Profile]

Just saw this posted on twitter:
"From 2021, the JSRA plans to abandon the Sunwolves (too expensive) and to associate with a Top League club. The favorite is Panasonic Wild Knights, who will have Kumagaya Stadium. Other Top League teams would also like to join Super Rugby."

Can anyone tell me what this means and what would this mean for the Sunwolves?

[victorsra Profile Website]

I remember the Wild Knights wanted to join Super Rugby. It was in the news some years ago.

It looks like JRFU wants to do like Italy in 2009, when they selected a club - Benetton Treviso - and a association of clubs - Aironi , led by Viadana - to join the Celtic League.

[Working Class Rugger Profile]

I remember the Wild Knights wanted to join Super Rugby. It was in the news some years ago.

It looks like JRFU wants to do like Italy in 2009, when they selected a club - Benetton Treviso - and a association of clubs - Aironi , led by Viadana - to join the Celtic League.

Not quite. They want to offload the expense that is the Sunwolves and clear the path for a Top League club to take up the SR mantle. Will be interesting to see how that works out.

[Figaro Profile]

I remember the Wild Knights wanted to join Super Rugby. It was in the news some years ago.

It looks like JRFU wants to do like Italy in 2009, when they selected a club - Benetton Treviso - and a association of clubs - Aironi , led by Viadana - to join the Celtic League.

This wasn't the preferred option though. There were supposed to be two new franchises, Aironi and one in Rome (not sure if the Roman one would be the same model as Aironi or a union team like Zebre are). The plan for the Roman team collapsed quite late in the day, and Treviso (who were reigning domestic champions and had dominated in recent years) stepped in instead.

So I don't understand - is the idea that the Sunwolves will be discontinued and replaced, or that they will be sold and a second Japanese team will join?

[Working Class Rugger Profile]

I remember the Wild Knights wanted to join Super Rugby. It was in the news some years ago.

It looks like JRFU wants to do like Italy in 2009, when they selected a club - Benetton Treviso - and a association of clubs - Aironi , led by Viadana - to join the Celtic League.

This wasn't the preferred option though. There were supposed to be two new franchises, Aironi and one in Rome (not sure if the Roman one would be the same model as Aironi or a union team like Zebre are). The plan for the Roman team collapsed quite late in the day, and Treviso (who were reigning domestic champions and had dominated in recent years) stepped in instead.

So I don't understand - is the idea that the Sunwolves will be discontinued and replaced, or that they will be sold and a second Japanese team will join?

I read it as the Sunwolves will be discontinued and replaced by a current Top League team likely in the form of the Wild Knights.

[DotJP Profile]

RWC 2019
Pool A(rankings, 15th July 2018)

Band 1-Ireland(2)
Band 2-Scotland(7)
Band 3-Japan(11)
Band 4-Russia(19)
Band 5-Samoa(17)



*RWC 2015
Pool B(pre-tournament positions in the World Rugby rankings)

Band 1-South Africa(3)
Band 2-Samoa(12)
Band 3-Scotland(10)
Band 4-Japan(13)
Band 5-USA(15)

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

In the Japanese press today that the only new stadium being constructed for next year's RWC, the Kamaishi Recovery Stadium, has officially been completed. First game will be local Top 2nd league team Kamaishi Seawaves (They should play Seawolves!) v Yamaha on 19th Aug. The report says the stadium will have 6K permanent seating, and pitch is a hybrid grass type.

Also announced today is Hanazono Stadium in Osaka currently being reconstructed will soon also be completed and have Japan v World XV (night game) on 26th October as it's first post-renewal game.

That will leave only Kumagaya Rugby Stadium as still not ready. Like Hanazono, it's also getting a decent overhaul.

[Working Class Rugger Profile]

In the Japanese press today that the only new stadium being constructed for next year's RWC, the Kamaishi Recovery Stadium, has officially been completed. First game will be local Top 2nd league team Kamaishi Seawaves (They should play Seawolves!) v Yamaha on 19th Aug. The report says the stadium will have 6K permanent seating, and pitch is a hybrid grass type.

Also announced today is Hanazono Stadium in Osaka currently being reconstructed will soon also be completed and have Japan v World XV (night game) on 26th October as it's first post-renewal game.

That will leave only Kumagaya Rugby Stadium as still not ready. Like Hanazono, it's also getting a decent overhaul.

According the The West newspaper the Wild Knights and a second undisclosed Japanese team are looking likely to be one of the teams that will feature in the inaugural World Series Rugby season. Not the exhibition season they'll compete in this year but the full 14 week home and away season set for next year.

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

Probably Suntory as with Pana they have consistently been the top two teams in Japan, on and off the field in the last decade. Possibly could be Kobe, Yamaha, Canon, or NEC etc but doubtful.

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

Seems Kumagaya should be finished soon as well. Saitama Prefecture govt 2019RWC website says construction due to finish at end of this month. June photos show main parts of stadium reconstruction finished.

https://www.pref.saitama.lg.jp/a1105/photokumagayarugby2018.html

Just looked at the Top League fixtures and it's down for Pana v Canon on 20th October, the last regular season round so that will be its first game post-reconstruction.