In the Land of the Endless Yen
John Kirwan came under fire from Japan’s Rugby Union for choosing too many players of foreign origin but still the influx of foreign players into Japan’s rugby continues.
The same is true of rugby in the Six Nations countries and, as in the case of Japan, the source of players is the SANZAR countries and the bait to lure them is vast heaps of Yen.
Amongst those who are going for the money are three of this year’s World Cup-winning All Blacks team and three of the Springboks team. Their agents must be delighted as it is a big pay-day for them as well.
The three All Blacks of the team that won the World Cup are Ma’a Nonu, Mils Muliaina and Brad Thorn. Nonu goes to Ricoh Black Rams on a short-term contract, Muliaina to newly promoted NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes and Thorn to Sanix Blues.
There are others who were at the World Cup and are now in Japan. James Haskell of England is also with the Ricoh Black Rams. Springboks Fourie du Preez and Danie Rossouw are with Suntory Sungoliath whose coach is Eddie Jones who was Jake White’s sidekick when the Springboks won the World Cup in 2007. Also at Suntory is the Wallaby icon George Smith, recently of Toulon. Smith turned down an offer to go to the World Cup.
Most recently, Springbok Jaque Fourie is joining the Panasonic Wild Knights, last season’s champions, on a two-year contract and may well be absent from Super Rugby for the foreseeable future. There are rumours of huge payment.
And there are others. Springbok Peter Grant is at Kobe Kobelco Steelers and All Blacks Jerry Collins (at Yamaha Jubilo), Rodney So’oialo (at Honda Heat) and Scott MacLeod (at Kobe Kobelco Steelers).
This is apart from others from many countries, including Tonga, whose former captain Nili Latu captains the NEC Green Rockets and has new players in Cameron McIntyre and Hottie Louw, Samoa, Fiji and the United States, whose representative is their captain, Todd Clever. Oh and there are others, like Mike Delany at Panasonic Wild Knights where Tony Brown is coaching and liable to play, Stephen Brett at Toyota Verblitz, Rico Gear and Luke Thompson at Kintetsu Liners and Isaac Ross at NTT Shining Arcs.
Of the 30-man Japan squad at the World Cup, 10 were not born in Japan. That placed them fourth after Samoa, Italy and the USA for foreign-born players and two had grown up in Japan from their teens and three had become naturalised Japanese citizens.
Top League Log after Round Three:
1 Toshiba Brave Lupus 15
2 Suntory Sungoliath 13
3 Kintetsu Liners 13
4 Panasonic Wild Knights 11
5 Kobe Kobelco Steelers 11
6 Yamaha Jubilo 10
7 Ricoh Black Rams 10
8 Toyota Verblitz 6
9 NTT Communications Shining Arcs 6
10 NEC Green Rockets 6
11 Fukuoka Sanix Blues 3
12 Honda Heat 2
13 NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes 2
14 Coca-Cola West Red Sparks 0
