The sun will be beating down on Saturday, July 2 at 3 p.m., at Toyota Stadium, when the Japan-France rugby match kicks off. The enclosure in the heart of the eponymous city, bastion of the Japanese car manufacturer, will host in stifling climatic conditions the first of two meetings between the Blues and the “Brave Blossoms”, quarter-finalists at the 2019 World Cup. , looking for a feat before the one organized in France in 2023.
Before these meetings against the team coached by Fabien Galthié, Japan played two games against Uruguay on June 18 and 25, which they easily won. For the Japanese management, these international confrontations are vital; however, between the 2019 World Cup at home and the summer of 2021, the Japanese team was deprived of it because of the Covid-19 pandemic. And the fall tour of Europe wasn’t enough, according to New Zealand coach Jamie Joseph. There are only ten games left for the Brave Blossoms to prepare for the next World Cup. “Considering that we haven’t played much for a long time, this match was not bad”said Jamie Joseph after the June 25 win over the Uruguayans.
The difficulties of the international calendar are not the only ones, they are added to those of the new formula of the Japanese championship, League One, launched in 2022. Three divisions, for a total of 24 teams, now replace the Top League. Stated objective: get out of corporate rugby and create a 100% professional championship in three years, with teams operating independently, equipped with a promotional policy, professional players, local roots with an official stadium and a training center.
Big ambitions
League One had big ambitions like “to become the best championship in the world”, and carried within it the Club World Cup project. This competition postponed sine die was to help improve the level of Japanese players, who can no longer count on the Japanese Sunwolves franchise, dissolved after having participated, from 2015 to 2020, in Super Rugby bringing together teams from the southern hemisphere.
At the end of the first season of League One, won on May 29 by the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, the results seem mixed. On an organizational level, attendance at Division 1 matches attracted an average of 4,213 spectators, far from the record of 6,470 set during the 2015-2016 Top League season. A difficult comparison, as League One has been disrupted by the Covid-19, causing the cancellation of 18 of the 96 Division 1 matches.
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