Japan is not a big contender in rugby world cup. Japan will play in Pool B where they have to face two times rugby world cup champion Australia, Wales, Canada and Fiji. Japan is undoubtedly one of the best rugby playing nations in Asia but they have little success outside Asia. Japan has participated in all the previous world cup tournaments. However, their best performance was in 1991 rugby world cup in England where they won one pool stage match. Rugby world cup 2007 will start from, 7 September 2007 in France. This will be the sixth edition of rugby world cup.
From Pool B Australia is undoubtedly the most favorite to qualify for the quarter final round. So, the other participating team of this pool will be fighting for the second place in the group. I do not think that Japan has a big chance to achieve the second place in Pool B. Rather, Wales and Canada are most likely to progress to the next round. However, anything can happen in sports because upsets are always available in every kind of sports. If Japan can qualify for quarter final stage then they may face England or South Africa in the quarter final stage. Here, I am giving the full pool stage schedule of Japan below:
Pool B
| Date | Competing Teams | Venue | Referee |
| 8-9-2007 | Japan vs Australia | Lyon | Alan Lewis (Ireland) |
| 12-9-2007 | Japan vs Fiji | Toulouse | Marius Jonker (South Africa) |
| 20-9-2007 | Japan vs Wales | Cardiff | Joël Jutge (France) |
| 25-9-2007 | Japan vs Canada | Bordeaux | Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa) |
Japan coach John Kirwan has unveiled the 30 member Japanese squad for the rugby world cup 2007. Veteran fly wing Daisuke Ohata has come back to the squad after suffering from an injury. Fly wing Daisuke Ohata and flanker Yasunori Watanabe are going to play their third world cup whereas five other players- Miuchi, props Ryo Yamamura and Masahito Yamamoto, back row Hajime Kiso and centre Hirotoki Onozawa will be playing their second world cup for Japan.
If you are interested to know about the Japan squad of rugby world cup 2007 then click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment