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Rich Freeman / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter
It says something about the gulf that exists between the various tiers of world rugby that a side can win 114-6 but still fail to fire on all cylinders.
But that was the case Saturday at Osaka's Hanazono Stadium as Japan beat the Arabian Gulf in the Asian Five Nations.
The professionals of Japan--ranked a best-ever 16th in the world--were much fitter and far more organized than the amateurs of the Arabian Gulf (49th) and it showed in the score line.
The Brave Blossoms ran in 18 tries and slotted over 12 conversions to easily pass the 82-9 drubbing they handed the Gulf when the two sides met two years ago in Tokyo.
But Japan's indiscipline and inability to hold onto the ball at the breakdown will surely come back to haunt it in June--should they be repeated--when the Brave Blossoms move up a class to play in the Pacific Nations Cup.
"There were too many errors in the first half," said Japan coach John Kirwan. "But we got through them and didn't get frustrated.
"Today was better than last week [when Japan beat South Korea 39-17] in that we kept our discipline and shape. But the work in the contact, the game management and how we adjust to the referee needs to be improved."
Takuro Miuchi opened the scoring in just the second minute--following up on an inch-perfect grubber kick from James Arlidge--and though the Brave Blossoms averaged a try every four minutes or so, it was hardly a vintage performance against a side totally out of its depth.
Not even the heat and the large smatterings of sand on the field could help the Gulf.
The longer the game went on, the easier it became for the Japanese players to break tackles and the century came up in the 72nd minute, when Koji Shinozuka made the most of an awful pass at the base of the scrum by Gulf No. 8 Dave Clark.
Shinozuka was one of 13 Japan players to touch down, with Arlidge slotting over eight conversions and Hiroki Yoshida adding four conversions to his first-half try.
Hirotoki Onozawa led the way with three tries, with Miuchi, Bryce Robins and Shaun Webb adding a brace apiece.
Takashi Kikutani, Akira Ozaki, Yuta Imamura, Toshizumi Kitagawa, Taku Inokuchi, Shotaro Onishi, Yoshitaka Nakayama were the other try scorers as Japan ensured it would be a long flight home for the visitors.
"We talked all week about playing for the full 80 minutes," said Kirwan.
"So I am happy the guys stuck at the game plan for the full 80. I am proud of them. We could have got loose, but they stayed tight."
Tight, but not tight enough.
Japan may have had the Gulf forwards on the back foot at the scrums, but they still managed to give away penalties in the set pieces and at the breakdown.
Inokuchi also struggled at times with his throwing in at the line-outs.
Paul Beard made the most of Japan's indiscipline to slot over two first-half penalties as the teams turned around 52-6.
Fortunately, Japan had fitness--and for 10 minutes, numbers--on its side.
The sin-binning of Gulf hooker Vivian Albertyn at the start of the second half for a spot of mountain climbing in a ruck only added to the visitors' woes: the Brave Blossoms eventually ran in a further 10 tries.
With the upcoming journey into the unknown on his mind--Japan takes on Kazakhstan for the first time on May 10--Kirwan emptied the bench in the second half to give some of his senior players a rest.
It also gave Webb the chance to score one of the quickest ever tries on debut, the replacement flyhalf touching down just two minutes after coming on for Arlidge.
"They will be very physical and very big," Kirwan said of Kazakhstan, which was beaten 23-17 by Hong Kong in Saturday's other match. "So we need to move on and improve on today's performance."
(May. 4, 2008)
Japan routs Arabian Gulf, exposes class gap in Asian rugby : Sports : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)
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. cant fault that mentality
