The joy of Japanese-style rugby

Proud son of Wexford he may be, and of doughty farming stock too, but the heart sinks at the prospect of seeing yet again Tadhg Furlong, all 20-odd stone of him, emerge from a pile of bodies laying siege to the opposition line to lumber over for a try. Ireland’s brand of suffocating rugby has been effective but uninspiring over this World Cup. And without wishing to offend our cousins across the Irish Sea, the heart sinks at the prospect of Furlong, Stander and the rest of the boyos possibly putting out a free-running (if so far slightly untested) New Zealand in the second of this weekend’s mouth-watering quarter-finals. Those interminable multi-phase pick-and-go assaults might be part of rugby but they are sure as hell not great to watch. Keep the ball out of sight and make sure the game won’t attract a new audience seems to be the message.

That’s why Japan’s victory over a hardworking Scotland was so remarkable. The ball was always available, the offloading and handling was jaw-dropping to watch, the fitness, commitment and determination, as well as speed of thought, quite extraordinary. It was one of the greatest games of rugby ever seen, and one of the most joyful. Let’s hope that Japanese-style rugby can drag the game back from the clutches of the muscle men.

What that victory over Scotland highlights is how far you can get if you give the game your all, though it must still be a little puzzling to the casual rugby viewer that the Japan team is plainly so cosmopolitan. In fact fewer than half the squad are actually Japanese, which is either very good in that it reflects the diverse modern nature of a nation, or slightly odd in that it draws attention to international rugby’s eccentric qualification rules.