RUGBY IN JAPAN NEWSLETTER: Volume 9, No.22

RiJ has been working back through the history of Japan tests and this week has a few snippets from 1953. The A5N 2012 wrapped up on the weekend with the fifth and final week of games. Japan had the bye this week, but the end results is that Japan took the title for the fifth straight year in a row with Korea coming in second followed by Hong Kong, the UAE and Kazakhstan in last place. The latter will drop back to Division One for next year with the Philippines coming into Top Five for the first time. RiJ also wraps up Japan’s involvement in the A5N with some statistics.

Enjoy the read.

The Japan Test Match & Player History Project

For nine years now RiJ has been documenting Japanese rugby across various levels of the game. More recently, however, RiJ has recognised the need to accurately document the history of Japanese test match rugby and the players that have represented Japan down through the years. With this in mind, RiJ has embarked on a project to write the history of Japanese international rugby, detail every test that Japan has played and profile every player that has represented Japan.

Did you know?

Cambridge University Tour to Japan 1953

In September and October 1953 Cambridge University toured Japan for the first time playing eight games on tour winning all eight.

Game 1: Cambridge University 32 d Kansai Universities 3, 9 September 1953, Nishi-Kyogoku, Kyoto.

Game 2: Cambridge University 14 d All-Keio University 3, 13 September 1953, Chichibu, Tokyo.

Game 3: Cambridge University 26 d All-Meiji University 14, 16 September 1953, Chichibu, Tokyo.

Game 4: Cambridge University 30 d All-Waseda University 0, 20 September 1953, Chichibu, Tokyo.

Game 5: Cambridge University 16 d Kyushu 12, 23 September 1953, Heiwadai Stadium, Fukuoka.

Game 6: First Test.

Game 7: Cambridge University 21 d Kansai 9, 30 September 1953, Mizuho, Nagoya.

Game 8: Second Test.

Japan 11 – Cambridge University 34. Sunday, 27 September 1953, Hanazono, Osaka. (Test No.10, Japan Game No.21)

Japan 6 – Cambridge University 35. Monday, 5 October 1953, Chichibu, Tokyo. (Test No.11, Japan Game No.22)

In the pre World War Two period Japanese rugby ventured onto the world stage playing seven tests for three wins, two draws and two losses. The inaugural test was a 3-all draw with British Columbia on the tour of Canada in 1930 and this was followed by two home wins over Canada in 1932, a win and a loss against the visiting Australian Universities in 1934 and finally a draw and a loss to New Zealand Universities on their tour of Japan in 1936.

After an impressive start, international rugby was stymied for Japan with the rise of militarism from the early to mid 1930s and the long descent into war leading to ultimate surrender and defeat in August 1945 followed by the post war Allied Occupation. The San Francisco Peace Treaty signed in September 1951 marked the beginning of the end of the Occupation with Japan (with the exception of Okinawa at that time) regaining full independence on 28 April 1952.

International rugby was restored in Japan in the same year with the inbound tour by Oxford University. Oxford played seven games on tour winning all seven including the two tests against the full Japan national side but the tour was significant as it marked the reintegration of Japan into the international rugby community. 1952 also saw Japan participate in the Winter Olympics in Oslo and the Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

The following year, 1953, saw Cambridge University tour Japan for the very first time on a tour that mirrored the one done by Oxford in 1952. It was also the year that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest and in similar way Japan and rugby was struggling to rebuild after the war. Under the captaincy of flanker Peter Wheeler, CU played a total of eight games on tour winning all eight. Two tests against the full Japan national side were included on the tour with CU winning 34-11 in Osaka and then 35-6 in Tokyo.

In the first test at the Hanazono ground in Osaka played on Sunday, 27 September 1953 in front of a crowd of 20,000 people, CU scored six tries to two in the 34-11 win with left wing Dickie Daw scoring a hat-trick while inside centre Phil Davies also helped himself to points two tries, five conversions and two drop goals. Davies had made his debut for England against Scotland in the Five Nations earlier in the year and he would go on to earn eleven caps for England and a further three with the Lions on the 1955 tour of South Africa. Flanker Shinichi Hashimoto was the tenth captain of Japan in ten tests while Takenosuke Okumura as the third coach of Japan continued in the job after coaching Japan against Oxford the previous year. Hooker Masaya Matsuoka was the oldest player in the Japan team at 32 years of age while Meiji University lock Teruo Kitajima and Doshisha University halfback Mitsuya Otsuka were the youngest at 20 years of age.

In the second test played in front of a full house of 25,000 people at the newly named Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo on Monday, 5 October 1953 the scoreline was more or less at repeat of the first test with CU winning 35-6. After playing on both sides of the scrum in his first three tests, Ryo Saito became the first person to captain Japan twice in a test from hooker after also acting as captain in one of the two tests against Oxford in 1952. This would be the fourth and final test for Japan captain number nine, but of course he would go on to coach Japan in the 1970s. It would also be the fourth and final test in charge for the first post-war coach in Okumura who finished his national coaching career with a record of four convincing losses. With rugby and Japan still finding their feet after the war, in hindsight such heavy losses are some way understandable.

Japan Players Used in the HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012

Below is a list of the players used in the four HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012 test matches.

The table lists the four tests in chronological order, that is, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Hong Kong. This is followed by a total cap count for each player. Column numbers for the tests indicate jersey numbers worn by players. A number in brackets indicates unused reserve player and thus no cap awarded. A dash indicates the player was not included in the XXII for that game. The captain for each match is indicated by (c).

New head coach Eddie Jones used a very stable squad throughout the tournament with eight players starting in all four games. Moreover, a further seven players made appearances in all four games.

A total of 28 players were used across the four tests with 14 players making their international debuts.

Halfbacks Fumiaki Tanaka and Atsushi Hiwasa along with hooker Shota Horie were chosen in the original squad but were withdrawn with Hiwasa playing in France with Stade Francais on a short term arrangement while Tanaka and Horie played in New Zealand with Otago in the ITM Cup on a similar short term arrangement. However, Hiwasa was back for the final two tests of the series.

Wing Hirotoki Onozawa is the most capped player in the current squad with 71 caps followed by lock Hitoshi Ono with 58 caps, while prop Kensuke Hatakeyama has 31 caps.

The oldest players in the current squad are Onozawa and Hitoshi Ono who are both 34 years old, while Yoshikazu Fujitais the youngest at 18 years of age.

Japan Squad for A5N 2012

Position	Name	Club	Age	Hgt/Wgt	Caps	Kaz	UAE	Kor	HK	Caps
LH Props	Yusuke NAGAE	Ricoh Black Rams	26	171/105	-	1	17	1	1	4
	Kensuke HATAKEYAMA	Suntory Sungoliath	26	178/111	27	3	1	3	3	31
Hookers	Shota HORIE	Panasonic Wild Knights	26	180/104	17	-	-	-	-	-
	Takeshi KIZU	Kobe Steelers	23	183/111	6	16	16	16	2	10
	Ryuhei ARITA	Coca-Cola West Red Sparks	23	176/100	-	2	2	2	16	4
TH Props	Hiroshi YAMASHITA	Kobe Steelers	26	183/121	8	-	-	17	17	10
	Hidetatsu TSUBOI	Chugoku Electric Power	23	181/115	-	17	3	-	-	2
Locks	Koji SHINOZUKA	Suntory Sungoliath	28	196/101	5	18	-	-	-	6
	Shoji ITO	Kobe Steelers	31	191/97	-	8	18	18	18	4
	Hitoshi ONO	Toshiba Brave Lupus	34	192/105	54	4	4	5	4	58
	Shinya MAKABE	Suntory Sungoliath	25	192/112	2	5	5	4	5	6
Flankers	Michael LEITCH	Toshiba Brave Lupus	23	190/105	22	6	-	8	8	25
	Tsuyoshi MURATA	NEC Green Rockets	23	185/100	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Yusaku KUWAZURU	Coca-Cola West Red Sparks	26	188/97	-	-	19	19	19	3
	Daiki HASHIMOTO	Kobe Steelers	25	184/100	-	-	7	-	-	1
No8s	Takamichi SASAKI (vc)	Suntory Sungoliath	28	184/95	6	7	8	7	7	10
	Yuta MOCHIZUKI	Toshiba Brave Lupus	30	184/105	-	19	6	6	6	4
Halfbacks	Fumiaki TANAKA	Panasonic Wild Knights	27	166/75	31	-	-	-	-	31
	Atsushi HIWASA	Suntory Sungoliath	25	166/72	10	-	-	20	9	12
	Jun FUJII	Toshiba Brave Lupus	29	170/77	-	9	9	9	20	4
	Keisuke UCHIDA	Tsukuba University	20	178/83	-	20	20	-	-	2
Five-eighths	Kosei ONO	Fukuoka Sanix Blues	25	171/81	5	10	10	10	10	9
	Harumichi TATEKAWA	Tenri University	22	181/93	-	21	12	12	21	4
L Wings	Hirotoki ONOZAWA	Suntory Sungoliath	34	180/85	68	11	-	11	11	71
	Yoshikazu FUJITA	Higashi Fukuoka HS	18	185/90	-	-	11	-	-	1
In. Centres	Yu TAMURA	NEC Green Rockets	23	181/87	-	12	-	21	12	3
	Tomohiro SEMBA	Toshiba Brave Lupus	29	183/97	-	13	13	13	13	4
Out. Centres	Koji TAIRA	Suntory Sungoliath	28	185/94	24	-	-	-	-	24
	Ryoto NAKAMURA	Teikyo University	20	177/87	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Kaito MORIKAWA	Honda Heat	24	175/86	-	-	21	-	-	1
R Wings	Toshiaki HIROSE (c)	Toshiba Brave Lupus	30	173/81	1	14 (c)	14 (c)	14 (c)	14 (c)	5
	Sho TAKENAKA	Tsukuba University	19	176/88	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fullbacks	Ayumu GOROMARU (vc)	Yamaha Jubilo	27	185/97	11	15	15	15	15	15
	Yasunori NAGATOMO	Suntory Sungoliath	27	176/85	3	22	22	22	22

Staff
Eddie Jones, head coach, JRFU.
Masahiro Kunda, assistant coach, JRFU.
Scott Wisemantel, technical adviser, JRFU.
John Pryor, strength and conditioning coordinator, JRFU.
Masanori Ota, strength and conditioning coach, JRFU.
Shota Nakajima, analyst, JRFU.
Takenori Omura, team manager, JRFU.
Julia Nakazawa, translator, Field of Dreams.

Back-up Squad (10)

Position	Name	Club	Age	Hgt/Wgt	Caps
Prop	Hisateru HIRASHIMA	Kobe Steelers	29	180/110	27
Hooker	Takeshi KIZU	Kobe Steelers	23	183/111	6
Flanker	Kyosuke HORIE	Meiji University	21	182/100	-
Flanker	Noriya KOBAYASHI	NTT Communications	27	185/105	-
No8	Makoto TOSA	NEC Green Rockets	25	187/108	-
Halfback	Jun FUJII	Toshiba Brave Lupus	29	170/77	-
Wing	Kazushi HANO	Chuo University	20	183/80	-
Centre	Kaito MORIKAWA	Honda Heat	23	175/86	-
Wing	Masakatsu HIKOSAKA	Tsukuba University	21	177/90	-
Fullback	Go ARUGA	Suntory Sungoliath	28	175/83	16

Not considered for this squad due to injury (5)

Position	Name	Club	Age	Hgt/Wgt	Caps
Lock	Michael BROADHURST	Ricoh Black Rams	25	196/105	-
Lock	Justin IVES	Panasonic Wild Knights	27	196/100	8
Flanker	Luke THOMPSON	Kintetsu Liners	30	196/110	37
No8	Ryu Koliniasi HOLANI	Panasonic Wild Knights	30	188/111	20
Centre	Male SAU	Yamaha Jubilo	24	183/98	-

HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012 Results – Top 5
Week	Date	Team	Score	Team	Venue and Kick-off
1	Fri. 27 April 2012	UAE	Oct-85	Hong Kong	The Sevens, Dubai, 20:00
	Sat. 28 April 2012	Kazakhstan	0-87	Japan	Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, 15:00
		Korea bye
2	Sat. 5 May 2012	Hong Kong	19-21	Korea	HKFC, Hong Kong, 16:00
		Japan	106-3	UAE	Level 5 Stadium, Fukuoka, 18:00
		Kazakhstan bye
3	Fri. 11 May 2012	UAE	46-31	Kazakhstan	The Sevens, Dubai, 16:00
	Sat. 12 May 2012	Korea	Aug-52	Japan	Seongnam Stadium, Seoul, 13:00
		Hong Kong bye
4	Sat. 19 May 2012	Japan	67-0	Hong Kong	Chichibu, Tokyo, 14:00
		Kazakhstan	17-87	Korea	National University Stadium, Almaty, 15:00
		UAE bye
5	Sat. 26 May 2012	Korea	47-21	UAE	Seongnam Stadium, Seoul, 13:00
		Hong Kong	55-0	Kazakhstan	Mong Kok Stadium, Hong Kong, 16:00
		Japan bye

Week Five

South Korea 47 d UAE 21

Date: Saturday 26 May 2012
Venue: Seongnam Stadium, Seoul
Kick-off: 13:00
Match Points: Korea 6, UAE 0

Preview

South Korea host the United Arab Emirates at the Seongnam Stadium in Seoul on Saturday 26 May 2012 in the fifth and final week of the HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012. There was inspiring news for the UAE during the week from the International Rugby Board with the announcement that the world’s governing body for the sport has granted associate membership status to UAE leading to full membership in twelve months time. Duncan Hall, national coach and performance manager of the UAE Rugby Association noted,“Getting associate membership status, and full membership soon, will add hugely to the standing and credibility of the game, and our Union, within the UAE sports community. And with rugby now in the Olympic Games this will further lift our profile.” However, the UAE are in a battle with Kazakhstan in the final round to avoid relegation back to Division One for next season. The UAE are in second to last position on the table on six points ahead of Kazakhstan in last place on one point with the bottom team to be relegated. With both teams facing tough away games the UAE are thus in the better situation. Korea, on the other hand, are back in Top Five this year after suffering relegation at the end of the 2010 season and with two wins and one loss the Koreans are looking to wrap up the runner-up position this year with a win over the UAE.

Wrap-up

Although South Korea beat the United Arab Emirates 47-21 in Seoul in the other game in the final week of the HSBC A5N for 2012, the scoreline flattered the victors as the UAE made the Koreans work hard all of the way for the win. The scores were locked at 14-all at halftime and then at 21-all ten minutes into the second half before the UAE faded over the closing stages to allow the home side to blow out the final scoreline. Flanker Lee Kwang Moon, lock Yu Young Nam and captain You Kwon Woo were among the seven try scorers for Korea while Tim Fletcher scored two of the three tries for the UAE. The win see Korea finish in second place in the final standings with 17 points from three wins and the one loss to Japan while the UAE did enough to retain their place in Top Five for 2013 by claiming fourth place on the table on 6 points from one win and three losses leaving Kazakhstan to be the ones relegated.

Hong Kong 55 d Kazakhstan 0

Date: Saturday 26 May 2012
Venue: Mong Kok Stadium, Hong Kong
Kick-off: 16:00
Match Points: Hong Kong 6, Kazakhstan 0

Preview

Hong Kong will play host to Kazakhstan at the newly renovated Mong Kok Stadium on Saturday 26 May 2012 in the first test match at the natural grass pitch venue since 1999. Hong Kong have not quite lived up to their runner-up status from last season but a win over poorly performing Kazakhstan will consolidate their place in Top Five for next season as the only other side besides Japan to have participated in the premier division since the start of the HSBC Asian Five Nations competiton back in 2008. Hong Kong had a big away win over the UAE in their opening game of their campaign this season but then lost to Korea at home and Japan in Tokyo last weekend. A good win over last placed Kazakhstan this Saturday will be the imperative for all concerned for the home side. However, the stakes are high for Kazakhstan as after three straight losses another loss will condemn them to relegation to Division One next season for the first time. The Kazakhs have played in all four previous seasons of Top Five, but their luck might be about to run out in Hong Kong if they do not throw everything at their opposition.

Wrap-up

Hong Kong defeated Kazakhstan 55-0 at the Mong Kok Stadium in Kowloon on Saturday 26 May 2012 in the final week of action in the HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012 to take third place on the final table. It was a bad day for the visitors though as that made four losses from four starts in their 2012 campaign to see them drop back to Division One for next year. The hosts scored seven tries to none with Head of Performance Dai Reesdescribing the win, “It was a great occasion and a great turn out from our rugby fans and local community. It was good to see the team respond with a sound performance.” Heavy rain and high humidity made life difficult for both sides but the home side made the best of the situation to finish their tournament on a high. Five-eighth Mike Glancy came away with 20 points from 2 penalties and 7 conversions while centre Ally Maclay touched down twice.

Bye: Japan.

HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012 Table

Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
Japan	4	4	0	0	312	11	301	24
Korea	4	3	0	1	163	109	54	17
Hong Kong	4	2	0	2	159	98	61	13
UAE	4	1	0	3	80	269	-189	6
Kazakhstan	4	0	0	4	48	260	-212	1

Five points for win, three points for draw, one bonus point for scoring four tries or more and one for losing by seven points or less.

Japan Point Scorers in the HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012

Below is a list of the point scorers for Japan in the four tests played during the HSBC A5N 2012.

Fullback Ayumu Goromaruwith 87 points from 5 tries and 31 conversions was the leading point scorer in the A5N 2012 followed by wing Hirotoki Onozawa on 40 points from 8 tries and wing Yoshikazu Fujita on 30 points from 6 tries.

Onozawa was naturally the leading try scorer with eight 5-pointers to his name from just three games played.

A total of 48 tries were scored across the four tests, 36 of which were converted by the three goal kickers used.

Name	T	C	Total
Ayumu Goromaru	5	31	87
Hirotoki Onozawa	8	-	40
Yoshikazu Fujita	6	-	30
Takamichi Sasaki	4	-	20
Toshiaki Hirose	3	-	15
Yu Tamura	2	2	14
Harumichi Tatekawa	1	3	11
Tomohiro Semba	2	-	10
Kensuke Hatakeyama	2	-	10
Yusaku Kuwazuru	2	-	10
Kosei Ono	2	-	10
Yuta Mochizuki	2	-	10
Yasunori Nagatomo	1	-	5
Jun Fujii	1	-	5
Hitoshi Ono	1	-	5
Kaito Morikawa	1	-	5
Takeshi Kizu	1	-	5
Shinya Makabe	1	-	5
Michael Leitch	1	-	5
Shoji Ito	1	-	5
Ryuhei Arita	1	-	5
TOTALS	48	36	312

Cards

In the four tests of the HSBC A5N 2012, Japan received one yellow card.

Japan v Hong Kong

Yellow Cards: Michael Leitch (Japan No.8, 26 min 2H, late charge).

Milestones

During the four tests of the HSBC A5N 2012, against the UAE Kyoto born left wing Yoshikazu Fujita wrote his name into the history books of Japanese rugby as the youngest player ever to wear the red and white national jersey of Japan at 18 years 7 months and 27 days, surpassing the previous record of 18 years 11 months and 3 days set by Christian Loamanu against Uruguay back in April 2005. Not only did he become the youngest player ever to represent Japan, he did it with incredible style scoring six tries on debut.

Not to be outdone, Hirotoki Onozawa who occupied the left wing position in the other three tests finished the series with 71 caps for Japan and now only has record holder former centre Yukio Motoki (79) ahead of him. Furthermore, the eight tries he scored his overall total advance to fifty-one international tries to overtake Rory Underwood on 50 (91 tests, England, Lions, 1984-1996) leaving only Shane Williams on 59 (90 tests, Wales, Lions, (2000-2011), David Campese on 64 (Australia, 101 tests, 1982-1996) and Daisuke Ohata on 69 (Japan, 58 tests, 1996-2006) ahead of him.

At the completion of the HSBC A5N 2012, lock Hitoshi Ono has earned 58 caps, equal with former wing Daisuke Ohata(58), with only former backrower Takeomi Ito (61), current wing Hirotoki Onozawa (71) and former centre Yukio Motoki (79) ahead of him on the all time list of appearances for Japan.

The 87 points fullback Ayumu Goromaru scored in the series took his total to 111 international points, while the 8 tries Onozawa scored took his total to 255 test points from 51 tries.