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17,000 may attend Japan's university final despite COVID-19 limits - JRFU
By AAP
Japan's university rugby championship final will go ahead in Tokyo on Monday with 17,000 supporters, despite new restrictions limiting crowds at major sporting events to 5,000 or 50% capacity, the Japanese Rugby Football Union said on Friday.
The Japanese capital and three neighbouring prefectures are under a state of emergency, declared Thursday in response to a surge in novel coronavirus infections, with large venues having already been instructed to limit attendance.
However, the government has made an exception for events to which tickets were already sold.
Japan's top domestic rugby competition, Top League, due to start on Jan. 16, will also go ahead with more than 5,000 fans in stadia as tickets for those matches have also already been sold.
More than 17,000 tickets have been bought for Monday's university final, to be held at the National Stadium built for the postponed Tokyo Olympics.
Over 24,000 spectators watched the final of J.League soccer's Levain Cup at the same stadium earlier this week.
"We want to move ahead without cancelling any of these tournaments," JRFU chairman Kensuke Iwabuchi told reporters on Friday.
"The situation changes day by day, hour by hour so we have to be flexible."
"We will still hold the final based on what the government has said," stressed Iwabuchi, who added that ticket holders who wanted a refund can seek one.
"We have already sold the tickets and the government has agreed that matches with tickets already sold can go ahead."
The coronavirus pandemic played havoc with sporting schedules throughout 2020 and forced the complete cancellation of last year's Top League campaign.
Japan, though less seriously hit by the pandemic than many places, has been unable to rein in the virus to the extent some countries in the region have, with daily infections topping 7,000 for the first time on Thursday. (Reporting by Jack Tarrant; editing by Richard Pullin)
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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