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Three South African born players in Japan's 23-man training squad
By Online Editors
Japan included three South African-born players in their World Cup training squad.
Former Bulls duo Pieter Labuschagne and Grant Hattingh join Wimpie van der Walt in Jamie Joseph’s squad. Van der Walt already has nine caps for the Brave Blossoms.
He made his debut for the national team back in 2017.
Hattingh and Labuschagne, who are both uncapped at Test level, made their debuts for the Sunwolves in last year’s Super Rugby tournament.
Japan face Russia in the opening game of the 2019 World Cup on September 20. Japan will also face Ireland, Scotland and Samoa in Pool A.
Japan training squad: Takuma Asahara, Keita Inagaki, Jiwon Koo, Masataka Mikami, Samuela Anise, Grant Hattingh, Wimpie Van Der Walt, Pieter Labuschagne, Yoshitaka Tokunaga, Masakatsu Nishikawa, Michael Leitch, Shunsuke Nunomaki, Kazuki Himeno, Fumiaki Tanaka, Yutaka Nagare, Yu Tamura, Kenki Fukuoka, Akihito Yamada, William Tupou, Kotaro Matsushima.
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Latest Comments
Keep? Do you have any idea what league is like? That is what rugby has turned into, not where it's trying to go. The universal body type of mass, the game needs to stop heading towards the physically gifted and go back to its roots of how it's played. Much like how SA are trying to add to their game by taking advantage of new laws.
That's what's happening, but as Nick suggests the slow tempo team can still too easyily dictate how the fast tempo team can play.
You mean how rugby used to be before teams started trying to manipulate everything to take advantage for their own gain to the discredit of the game.
Go to commentsIs that "paid" or compensated?
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