Witness the frenzy of the Brave Blossoms in France!
Shortly after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 pool draw Michael Leitch commented that Japan had landed themselves in a tough group. The Japanese national team are in Pool D, which includes England, the home of rugby (6th in the world rankings as of March 2023), Argentina (8th), Oceania’s top qualifier, Samoa (12th) and the second top qualifier from the Americas group, Chile (22nd). Japan is currently ranked 10th in the world which puts them third in Pool D based on their past results alone. However, you just never know how things will pan out at Rugby World Cup, which is the interesting yet scary thing about this tournament.
Japan sent rugby fans around the world into a frenzy at RWC 2015 when they robbed superpower South Africa of victory 34-32. Then at the last tournament in 2019, Japan won all of its qualifying matches and advanced to the knockout stage for the first time in history. In addition, despite the fact that the All Blacks were missing some key players at a friendly match in 2022, Japan came within one try and a goal to victory with a score of 38-31. It’s clear to say that the Japanese national team has gone from strength to strength and come a long way from their humiliating defeat of 145-0 against the All Blacks at the third tournament in 1995.
What can we expect of the Japanese team at the 10th Rugby World Cup this September? Pay close attention to the second match of the pool phase against England on 17 September. England sacked their head coach, Eddie Jones (now the head coach of the Australian team), last year due to poor performance and even after his replacement took charge, the team has continued to perform poorly, including a 53-10 defeat by France.
Some changes have been implemented for this tournament including all teams being required to have at least five rest days between matches, in addition to an increase from 31 to 33 registered players. Traditionally the Rugby World Cup schedule has favored stronger teams, however the introduction of such rules will ensure a more even playing field this year.
Stay tuned to see the Brave Blossoms in action and if they can pull off a series of upsets on French soil!
