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From Oliver Trenchard
Japanese rugby writer
That is not a wonder.
Read Japanese newspapers since the Brave Blossoms reserved a place at the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals for the first time with success against Scotland.
The Japanese public and media are waking their national team.
However, this did not happen.
The devastating acceleration and agility of celebrity wingers Kotaro Matsushima and Kenki Fukuoka, coupled with all captain along with back-rower Michael Leitchs epic leadership, deserve however there is more to this Brave Blossoms than their own poster boys.
Japan have ability from 1 to 15 – and about the replacements bench.
They have to equal that of opposition backs, capable of several bizarre offloads as shown by hooker Shota Horie contrary to Scotland.
The Brave Blossoms know their strengths lie along with their fitness and so are keen to increase time that is ball-in-play, transferring the ball away from the field of contact.
After becoming the sporting story of the pool point, the hosts face winners South Africa in the last eight. BBC Sport looks at the causes of the increase of Japan.
Launching the Sunwolves a few months after the 2015 championship has brought huge advantages to the national group.
The gamers are now testing themselves against quality hemisphere resistance, a luxury they would not have with Top League rugby that is national only.
Although the Sunwolves will participate in Super Rugby from 2021, theyve played a role in Japans World Cup preparations.
An alignment involving the Sunwolves over the previous two seasons and the national team has seen helper Tony Brown and head coach Jamie Joseph carrying the reins of both teams, leading to the Super Rugby side becoming an extension of their Brave Blossoms.
Much of managing Japan have generated in the World Cup and this attacking flair was honed in Super Rugby.
Joseph and Brown had the luxury prior year of picking which players featured for the Sunwolves, pulling the vast majority of Japans World Cup squad for a set of intensive coaching camps and allowing the Brave Blossoms to best those set-piece routines and encircle moves, also make them the fittest team at the tournament.
Where rugby has gained from overseas coaches it is not that the Sunwolves.
Robbie Deans, the most successful Super Rugby trainer by number of titles, key to the development of wing Fukuoka and front-row forward Horie and Keita Inagaki and was at the helm of Panasonic Wild Knights in the League because 2014.
Meanwhile, Kazuki Himeno, among the players of the tournament so far, has 2007 World Cup-winning coach Jake White to thank you for his development.
White was appointed head coach Toyota Verblitz in 2017, whom Himeno joined in April this year directly from university.
Just one month later, he was made ruler White, stating that it was ahuge opportunity for him to grow.
The back-row forward fought to manage the captaincy initially but began staying late at night in cafes, reading books on leadership and building a team.
He had been rewarded with his Brave Blossoms call-up, less than two weeks after making his debut Verblitz at the League.
He has continued in the breakdown setting him as one of the titles on Josephs teamsheet for Japan on his meteoric trajectory with his tenacious and conveys work.
Even though Joseph and Brown will get the headlines it has become the scrum where the Brave Blossoms have enhanced beneath their tenure.
Shin Hasegawa is your man responsible for their scrum. Cutting a figure in a suit and tie on the end of Japans seat on Sunday, the squirt is not the kind of person you would wish to bump into at night down a subtropical Tokyo street.
Having played at the 1999 World Cup alongside Joseph for Japan, Hasegawa realised the competitions overpowered the Japan scrum.
After turning them into a title contest with all the very best scrum at the group and Immunology Best League group Yamaha Jubilo, Hasegawa was called upon by Joseph from 2016 to help the Brave Blossoms scrummaging.
Conscious that Japanese players will normally be of smaller stature than their opponents, Hasegawa has contrasted his scrummaging approach with Japan to your punch, at whichhitting quicker will lead to more impact thanpunching harder.
His breakthrough came at June 2017 in two Tests against Ireland.
Japan were overpowered at the scrum at the first Test. However, a shift in the angle of the hooker saw the following week, the Brave Blossoms contend. It was the Japan forward realised his ability.
South Africa fans with painful memories of 2015 will likely be happy to remind Japan that lightning doesnt strike twice.
The Brave Blossoms have beaten on Scotland and Ireland in Pool A and will fancy their chances of maintaining another tier-one scalp on Sunday.
The rematch of this Brighton miracle comes together using all the Springboks cantering into a victory on such occasion, only 44 days after the teams met in a pre-tournament warm-up game.
This was far in the situation Though the margin of victory that evening in Kumagaya would indicate that a same-sex affair.
Japan won twice as several rucks, outstripping the opposition in virtually every statistic from breaks into offloads and appreciated twice as much territory.
The area in which they failed to match the Springboks was together with the people.
Japan will be eager to make amends for the defeat.
Their lineup was perfected with centres Ryota Nakamura and Timothy Lafaele overriding to Matsushima and Fukuokas managing skills being awarded attacking chances.
Never has received this level of exposure in Japan. The states robustly newspaper market has plastered Japans red and white all on its front pages, whilst tv recordings have been obliterated for Brave Blossoms games.
Sundays win against Scotland saw 53.7% of the country song in, which makes it the most viewed television programme of this year domestically.
Viewership has raised game-on-game for Japan matches together with the audience more than double that of the opening match of Sunday.
Rugby has captured the hearts of the nation.
When uttered around sporting events, the word heritage is tarnished with a sense of platitude. This is uncharted territory for Western rugby, whose job it will be to ensure that these lovers are not currently after the sport every four years.
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