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© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Japan the center of attention in 1st Rugby World Cup in Asia
By STEPHEN WADE TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Haaa Nemui
Admire your confidence and I'd really love to see it, but it's a tough ask even to make the quarters. I hope they can put in a good performance tonight against Russia without any issues.
drlucifer
They will when Japan plays and win and the coverage will reach fever pitch if they happen to beat Ireland and the architect of the victory will become a national hero if he is a pure Japanese and not an import.
They will be running all over the place interviewing his school teacher, classmates and grand parents and the food that he likes and the restaurant he frequents, interview the chef and then have a taste of his favorite food.
That's the script and that's how it will be played out.
Ah_so
Coming from you, Ganbare, that's a surprisingly pessimistic view about Japan.
David
The Japanese team will be embarrassed. The world won’t be shocked.
Haaa Nemui
Some pretty good ideas about the chances of the teams for each and every game right here.
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/rugby-world-cup/power-rankings/
goldorak
@ haaa, the problem with stuff.co.nz is that they're incredibly biased, always do their utmost to discredit NH sides (esp England and France, nh refs, etc) and aussies. Saffas the only 'worthy' opponents (interestingly saffa media do the same lol).
Hadn't been on their site for quite a while so I gave it a go a couple of days ago when RM posted a link re players' country of birth. Again blatantly anti nh/oz, even had New Caledonia born players as 'non-french'/ foreigners smh!
Wonder if they had similar articles in the early 2000s when half NZ league NT were aussies (and am not talking born/ moved to nz as toddlers, I mean dinki do Aussies)!? Absolute flogs.
Haaa Nemui
No argument from me there, goldorak. Even so, I think this particular ranking is reasonably accurate when looking at past performance. I wouldn't give the all blacks that much of a chance over South Africa though. Re NH reporting, there are so many "experts" and opinion piece writers who look for any chance they can to stick it to the AB's so I'm not so worried when it goes the other way.
Ganbare Japan!
Good luck Brave Blossoms! While I dont think they can win the Cup, they could beat quite a few teams to make Semi Final, and shock the world.
tooheysnew
as excited as I am for being in Japan for the Rugby World Cup, I'm very disappointed in the Japanese media for their lack of coverage.
especially the commercial stations, who have been reporting on everything from volleyball, wrestling, athletics to tennis, but nothing on Rugby - pathetic really.
despite this, I’m sure this World Cup is going to be a huge success.