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Over 2,000 Japanese supporters turn out for first Springbok training session
By Online Editors
The Springboks completed their first training session in front of more than 2 000 excited local supporters on Sunday, within a few hours of arriving at their training base in Japan.
The Springboks had a morning gym workout followed by an afternoon field session in Seki, in cloudy but hot and humid conditions (29?C), following a few hours’ sleep after completing their 25-hour journey from South Africa.
“It’s great to be here and the welcome has been great,” said Rassie Erasmus, Director of Rugby, at a Sunday lunchtime media conference.
“We’ve heard a lot about Japan from the many players in our squad who have played here, as well as from one of our coaches Matt Proudfoot.
“They have all loved their time in Japan and have talked a lot about it before we arrived, so it’s great to finally be here and to experience it ourselves.
“We did a number of detailed recces before coming out and the hotels and training fields are really outstanding. Now it’s down to business and a very tough and important match against Japan.”
Erasmus underlined that point by getting straight to work on Sunday as the team began preparations in earnest for Friday’s match in Kumagaya, a 45-minute bullet train ride from Tokyo.
The Springboks prepare in Seki until Wednesday when they will transfer to the match venue.
“We have huge respect for Japanese rugby,” said Erasmus after being reminded – not for the first time – of Japan’s victory over the Springboks (32-34) in Brighton at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
“They have an outstanding coaching team who have been preparing for this game for a while now and they will be determined to prove that 2015 was not a freak result.
“They’re well-conditioned and come off the back of winning the Pacific Nations Cup after victories over USA, Tonga and Fiji, so they have reason to be confident. And they have just equalled their highest ever world ranking (9th).
“They made a movie about the last time they played us – it’s our job to make sure there’s no sequel.”
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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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