After a recent winning run and a top 10 world ranking has finally made the rugby media more aware of Japan's improvements, the former coach John Kirwan has been totally forgotten from the narrative.
In June 2013 when Wales toured Japan the standard prediction from fans was for an easy win by at least 25-30 points, this was backed up by the bookies who had that as the handicap but in reality all that came from an ignorance of the standard of the Cherry Blossoms team.
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| Despite being a considerable way off from the real Wales side, bookies made Japan 25 point underdogs. |
The reason as to why these predictions that were way off the mark occurred was simple. Japan's reputation was still highly influenced by the memories of previous joke performances and humiliations. A few Welsh fans were likely completely unaware of their results since their last meeting which was a thrashing at the 2007 World Cup.
As it happened though, Japan would go onto completely choke in the 1st Test before making amends in the 2nd Test with a decisive 23-8 win. This was the beginning of a turnaround in starting to restore a bit of the terrible reputation that Japan had worldwide mainstream rugby media.
Following that gradually they are now getting more acknowledgement as an "improving rugby nation", further enhanced by a 10 match winning streak and another win over 6 Nations side Italy that saw them reach the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time. Both are misleading achievements, the former based mostly on Asian 5 Nations wins and the latter based on wins over Wales and Samoan outfits that nowhere near resembled the strength of their actual teams.
Through the false ranking has actually helped Japan get recognised a bit more respectability, but the narrative behind the improvements has been more of an instant turnaround and ignored the longer term process there has been and in particular the work under former coach John Kirwan.
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| John Kirwan inherited a side that had conceded 50 points against Italy, Tonga and Samoa in June 2006. |
The side was without doubt in a far worse position when Kirwan took over. After a 52-6 home loss to Italy (along with two other 50 point defeats to Tonga and Samoa), Jean-Pierre Elissalde didn't last long and the side was a mess.
What Kirwan brought in was a discipline, structure and physicality that was all previously lacking. Whilst talk of a lot of Kiwis being brought into the team was valid, the reality was that was probably the most effective short term fix.
Kirwan's side made a lot of progress in terms of being competitive. After taking over from the aforementioned loss to Italy, in 2011 it was a close match. After getting 70 points put on the side by Wales at the 2007 World Cup, in 2011 they were competitive with France for an hour or so.
It's undeniable that Kirwan progressed Japan rugby a lot from the way he inherited it, and he hadn't applied a more structured and disciplined culture to the way the side played then it would have been a harder job for Eddie Jones to takeover.
Wisely, rather than shaking up Japan rugby and ditching everything and starting over, Jones progressed on what Kirwan built. The side simply could not compete in previous days playing with no structure and no attitude of wanting to front up in the collision areas of the sport, that had to change and why it was necessary to bring in top level foreign coaches (Elissalde not counting as top level).
In fact Jones was probably the ideal candidate to take the side forward, a great fit combining both experience and knowledge of Japan rugby on top of lots of experience in top level countries as well.
Jones has brought in spot coaches who've made a big difference such as Marc dal Maso, getting players into Super Rugby was probably a sensible option as well. Also Jones has managed to integrate more Japanese players into the side and probably hit the balance better than any other coach before, where it was a bit all or nothing. Although the emergence in particular of a Japanese fly half in Harumichi Tatekawa, too young under Kirwan's time in charge, has helped
A lot of what has seen Kirwan's work taken out of the narrative though has been to do with two things. Firstly there was the poor fixture lists. In Kirwan's time in charge he only got one Tier 1 game which was the Italy just prior to the World Cup (the Pacific Island opposition tended to be understrength as well in his time in charge). Then secondly when he got to the World Cup the team underachieved at that particular tournament failing to win a game, and whilst throwing his second team to the wolves against New Zealand didn't leave a particularly good impression of the side.
Under Eddie Jones' time in charge, by contrast his side has had chances to play more against Tier 1 sides and thus the recognition of improvement has been coming more since the Wales series last June, with the fake top 10 ranking also helping. Kirwan's only real chance for his side to gain more respect was the World Cup, where the fact the team had a lot of Kiwis in it and didn't do all that well cost Kirwan his due credit for improving the side.
Kirwan's side made a lot of progress in terms of being competitive. After taking over from the aforementioned loss to Italy, in 2011 it was a close match. After getting 70 points put on the side by Wales at the 2007 World Cup, in 2011 they were competitive with France for an hour or so.
It's undeniable that Kirwan progressed Japan rugby a lot from the way he inherited it, and he hadn't applied a more structured and disciplined culture to the way the side played then it would have been a harder job for Eddie Jones to takeover.
Wisely, rather than shaking up Japan rugby and ditching everything and starting over, Jones progressed on what Kirwan built. The side simply could not compete in previous days playing with no structure and no attitude of wanting to front up in the collision areas of the sport, that had to change and why it was necessary to bring in top level foreign coaches (Elissalde not counting as top level).
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| Eddie Jones is doing a good job helping Japan further progress. |
In fact Jones was probably the ideal candidate to take the side forward, a great fit combining both experience and knowledge of Japan rugby on top of lots of experience in top level countries as well.
Jones has brought in spot coaches who've made a big difference such as Marc dal Maso, getting players into Super Rugby was probably a sensible option as well. Also Jones has managed to integrate more Japanese players into the side and probably hit the balance better than any other coach before, where it was a bit all or nothing. Although the emergence in particular of a Japanese fly half in Harumichi Tatekawa, too young under Kirwan's time in charge, has helped
A lot of what has seen Kirwan's work taken out of the narrative though has been to do with two things. Firstly there was the poor fixture lists. In Kirwan's time in charge he only got one Tier 1 game which was the Italy just prior to the World Cup (the Pacific Island opposition tended to be understrength as well in his time in charge). Then secondly when he got to the World Cup the team underachieved at that particular tournament failing to win a game, and whilst throwing his second team to the wolves against New Zealand didn't leave a particularly good impression of the side.
Under Eddie Jones' time in charge, by contrast his side has had chances to play more against Tier 1 sides and thus the recognition of improvement has been coming more since the Wales series last June, with the fake top 10 ranking also helping. Kirwan's only real chance for his side to gain more respect was the World Cup, where the fact the team had a lot of Kiwis in it and didn't do all that well cost Kirwan his due credit for improving the side.
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