The way Japan has embraced the World Cup and a sport that otherwise attracts little attention is visible wherever a match is staged. The manager at a hotel in Toyota on Monday, bedecked in the kit of the host nation, admitted he knew nothing about the oval code but felt he had a duty to support the event.
And so that night the streets of downtown Toyota were crowded with locals wearing Wales jerseys and supporting them against Georgia with the same fervour of those who have travelled nearly 6,000 miles to follow the team. “It is a matter of national pride,” said the manager, who admitted he would be following next year’s Olympics in Tokyo far more closely than the rugby. “We want people to think well of Japan.”
They do not do things half-heartedly here. Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, a 24/7 whirl of bodies and traffic, but when you walk the streets there is barely a dog-end on the pavements. There are very few bins, but there is no litter, until you reach a stadium on match day, and then it is swiftly picked up by locals. Rubbish is carried home if necessary, signalling not just a respect of authority but a collective will.
Listening to the Georgia coach, Milton Haig, answer a question on Monday about when his side could expect a pathway to the Six Nations, what struck quickly was the irony that a country with little knowledge of rugby union should so completely wrap itself up in the sport while major unions do not look beyond themselves. This World Cup is less than a week old, but it has already set a record for merchandise sales.
Haig faced the question in the 2015 World Cup and his answer was the same: who knows? The prospect of the door being opened to Georgia and the other tier-two European nations was never great but following the decision of the Six Nations to accept investment from a private equity company, the championship will be ring-fenced indefinitely.
The likes of Georgia may get slightly more access to tier-one nations between World Cups than they have been used to, but it will not prepare them for matches against the likes of Wales. “You can’t play a team like Wales in the World Cup and expect to produce miracles,” Haig said. “We need more games against the top nations, but until that happens, unfortunately for us, these type of results will recur. Maybe something will change.”
It won’t, at least not in the way Haig would prefer. There was a time when Wales were vulnerable to teams such as Georgia: between 1989 and 2007, they lost to Romania, Canada, Samoa, three times, and failed to make the quarter-finals in three World Cups out of five from 1991. Like Ireland, who were also unremarkable in the early years of the open era, they are not the richest union but have invested heavily in the national team. It has paid off this decade. They have moved away from the countries below and closed the gap with those at the top, both topping the rankings in the last month.
Neither has the playing resources of England and France, a disadvantage offset by the control they exercise over their leading players. One reason the English union is having to save money is the tens of millions of pounds it funnels into Premiership clubs who spend much of it by attracting players from other countries: one union’s money spent on destabilising another. Meanwhile, the Wales full-back Liam Williams always seems to have full release for his country despite his union paying nothing for the privilege.
The rise of Wales and Ireland, who were both among the more impressive performers in the opening round, have left Italy and Scotland on the back foot. Is it any surprise then that Scotland were the ones who among the Six Nations most strongly resisted World Rugby’s Nations League plan?
After Scotland’s no-show against Ireland in Yokohama, when it was as if they had stepped on to the field for a light training session after a long flight rather than a match that would go a long way to deciding who topped the group, the Scottish union should explain why it should have the right to deny, without a time limit, countries such as Georgia and Romania the right to dine at international rugby’s top table.
At least Georgia showed spirit against Wales after falling 29-0 behind in a masterly tactical display by the Six Nations champions, and no little skill, and how Russia kept going on the opening night against Japan. Fiji may have shocked Australia had the television match official adhered to the terms of his contract, Namibia got stuck into Italy and Fiji lacked the edge they had shown against the Wallabies against a spirited Uruguay who had last been heard of losing 60-3 to England in Manchester four years ago.
“Small boys like us scramble around for the tier one’s scraps,” Haig said, an indictment of a sport that is in thrall to the acquisitiveness of a few; greed rather than globalisation.
There is talk about the legacy the World Cup will leave on Japan and Asia but what about the legacy Japan can leave on the game itself, to treat it in the round and throw everything into its entirety?
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