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Robbie Dean's Panasonic Wild Knights attract record attendance for victory over Steve Hansen's Toyota Verblitz
By Tom Vinicombe
There's no doubt about it, rugby popularity has skyrocketed in Japan on the back of an incredibly successful 2019 World Cup.
On the field, the Brave Blossoms made the knockout stages of the competition for the first time, besting both Ireland and Scotland in the process.
Off the field, viewers tuned in for matches in droves, with over 54% of the population tuning in at one point or another to witness Japan's victory over Scotland.
Whilst questions still remain on how Japan can best capitalise on the opportunity that lies in front of them, fans are already showing that there's a newfound passion for the game in the Land of the Rising Sun, with huge numbers turning out for the Top League already.
Two of last weekend's matches attracted crowds of over 20,000: Kobelco Steelers, v Canon Eagles and Toshiba Brave Lupus v Suntory Sungoliath.
Continue reading below...
Catch up on all the highlights from Round 1 of the Japanese Top League:
This weekend, figures have jumped even further.
Saturday's showcase match saw Steve Hansen's Toyota Verblitz host Robbie Deans' Panasonic Wild Knights.
Toyota called on former All Black captain Kieran Read and Word Cup-winning Springbok Willie le Roux while Sam Whitelock and Damian de Allende started for the Wild Knights.
The key man on show, however, was Brave Blossoms wing Kenki Fukuoka, who lit up the World Cup with crucial tries against Ireland, Samoa and Scotland.
Fukuoka has decided to push for a spot at the Olympics with the Japan sevens team and will spend the rest of the season competing in the World Sevens Series. Saturday's match was Fukuoka's final game of XVs for the season - and possibly of his career.
Fukuoka's impending departure likely played a major role in enticing over 37,000 fans to Toyota Stadium - which set a new record attendance for the league.
It was Fukuoka's travelling Wild Knights who emerged victorious from the contest, comfortably accounting for the home side 40-20.
Fukuoka contributed a try and an assist to Panasonic's cause while all three South Africans on display, le Roux, de Allende and Lionel Cronje, dotted down for tries of their own.
Top League round 2 Saturday results:
Mitsubishi Dynaboars 15 - 23 Canon Eagles
NEC Green Rockets 17 - 27 Hino Red Dolphins
Yamaha Jubilo 24 - 26 Kobelco Steelers
Toyota Verblitz 20 - 40 Panasonic Wild Knights
Suntory Sungoliath 22 - 10 NTT Shining Arcs
Toshiba Brave Lupus 39 - 21 NTT Red Hurricanes
Catch the round 3 Top League match between Dan Carter's Kobelco Steelers and Samu Kerevi's Suntory Sungoliath live on RugbyPass for all subscribers at 1PM JST on Sunday, January 26th.
Jim Hamilton discusses the quality of players currently playing in Japan's top league:
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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