“Japan have a lot more footage of our matches than we of them”. The sentence is signed Thomas Lavault, one of the seventeen neophytes of the XV of France group for this summer tour of two test matches in the land of the Rising Sun, the first of which takes place on Saturday July 2 (8 a.m.) . No one will blame the second line from La Rochelle for having lost track of the Japanese players. Because after beating South Africa during the 2015 World Cup, then dominating Ireland and Scotland during the 2019 edition, Japan was disrupted by the Covid-19.
Since their quarter-final at the 2019 World Cup at home, the selection has played only ten small games, against twenty-five for the Blues. It is therefore difficult to gauge the value of a team whose daily life is constantly turned upside down by the virus. “One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is the pandemic.”said the Japanese coach, Jamie Joseph.
The Brave Blossoms were deprived of international meetings for two years, from the end of the World Cup to a match with the British Lions in June 2021. “We are clearly behind in terms of development,” synthesized the breeder. “They haven’t played a lot and that may sound pejorative, but there’s a lot of quality in this team rugbyally, physically”was wary Charles Ollivon with AFP.
Japan has found a decent pace in 2021. Enough to rock a revamped, but motivated blue ship? “When we look at the Japanese team, they inspire us with awe”, respectfully recalled forwards coach William Servat. Since the end of its black hole, the Japanese selection has won three of its ten games. Successes acquired easily but against Uruguay and Portugal, secondary nations.
When they rubbed shoulders with an opponent of the caliber of the Blues, the Brave Blossoms did not slip away. They even caused problems for Australia (23-32), Scotland (20-29) and Ireland (31-39), without ever winning. “They were very close to the score until the end, it’s not for nothing”warned Ollivon. This famous “glass ceiling” to beat great nations, Jamie Joseph’s players have yet broken it more than once. At the 2019 World Cup, they came out at the top of a group comprising, precisely, the XV of Thistle and Clover. Before giving a few cold sweats to the future South African world champions.
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“A few years ago, Japan was a little below in terms of level, but today it is no longer the case”, praised Servat. The reception of France for the traditional summer tour rewards, in this sense, a progression leading the Japanese in the Top 10 of the Word Rugby ranking. It is also not improbable to imagine them once again in the quarterfinals in the fall of 2023. Their group, with England, Argentina and Samoa in particular, is anything but unaffordable.
For the Blues, these tests are not without interest either, fourteen months before the World Cup at home. They even flow from a certain logic. The Galthié band traveled around Australia last summer, hosted New Zealand in November and will be back against the South Africans this fall. Facing Japan is like completing a tour of the ten best nations before the World Cup.
Especially since, in a rugby planet with limited supply, the big names in the South are already busy. The Blacks begin a series of tests against Ireland, the Wallabies rub shoulders with England, the Springboks receive Wales, and the Argentinian Pumas challenge Scotland.
“This tour was decided during the San Francisco agreements in 2017”remembers for The Parisian Serge Simon, vice-president of the Federation. A few months later, the Japanese won a draw against the calamitous Blues (23-23), sealing the fate of Guy Novès and proving that the Asian selection could compete. After these two test matches in July, France will meet Japan in November and will have faced them four times in five years. That is one more than in the last forty years.