【教職員リレーブログ】The Rugby World Cup

「ほっと一息つけるおすすめの飲み物」最近、めちゃ好きな飲み物は炭酸水とクランベリージュースです！すごく爽やかですよ！僕はよく辛い食事を食べますが（タコスとか、インドカレーとか）、あのしゅわしゅわクランベリージュースはとても合うと思います！

僕の質問は「日本で住んでいなかったら、どこの国に住んでみたいですか？」です。

(me, in high school playing for my team, Reading Abbey)

I hoped I would be writing this blog post about Japan’s prospects in the Rugby World Cup. Rugby is a strange sport, and one I have a strange relationship with. I started playing full contact rugby when I was about 10, and kept going all the way until after high school.

When I was a kid, I always enjoyed the World Cup the best. More than any sport, I feel Rugby at the international level has a real sense of national character. Big teams like England, Australia and South Africa are extremely physical – they play slow, exhausting Rugby to push their opponent to exhaustion, then running (or in England’s case, kicking) through the mistakes that follow. New Zealand play with an intense, mobile passion, as generations of the world’s best players take great pride in being an All-Black, a real honor in Aotearoa. But, my favorite teams have always been Ireland (I’m half-Irish, after all!), France and more recently, Japan. More than strength, or speed, these three teams think. Precise, practiced plays, and knowledge of the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, and an ability to attack with not just strength, but also passing and kicking. An important part of Rugby culture is respect – respecting different cultures, but also respecting your opponent. Growing up, after a game of Rugby, we would always sit down in shirts and ties for a meal with the other team. No matter how hard we fought on the pitch, afterwards we would talk and laugh about the match over some tasty food.

When it came to game time against Argentina, I was hopeful. Japan’s previous match against Samoa had been close. A brutal number of scrums at the start of the match would have been enough to exhaust any good team, but Japan held on. Samoa are not a weak team, nearly beating England – one of the teams considered very likely to win the tournament. Sadly, despite some incredible playing – Amato Fakatava’s try might be one of the best I’ve ever seen! – and beautiful kicking from Lemeki, Argentina’s mighty center attacks could not be stopped, and Japan were beaten. Looking at the Last 4 – I’d love to see an Argentina Vs New Zealand Final. Argentina are the last team from South America, and have never made it this far, so I hope they do well! But if you want my honest prediction, I think it will be England vs South Africa, with South Africa winning the tournament overall.

 After the 2019 Rugby World cup, a lot of students told me they enjoyed watching the matches. I asked all of them if they wanted to try playing Rugby, but all of them said “it looks too dangerous”. Rugby can be dangerous, but with good, safe coaches and training, it’s actually quite safe, and I think it’s very, very fun. The last 22 minutes of the match against Argentina were hard for Japan. But they never stopped trying. So I hope, whoever is reading this, if you want, TRY!