Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

SMAD. An Organ of Student Opinion. 1936. Volume 7. Number 3.

Football in Japan

Football in Japan.

Rugby in Japan is as yet confined to the schools and universities. It has not achieved the popularity of baseball which is the national game and is followed by huge crowds. When a man adopts Rugby as his sport he takes it up with characteristic thoroughness, practising for a couple of hours daily all the year and playing no other game.

Rarely do they depart from the in orthodox style of Rughy. Back and forward play follows the traditional method of giving the ball to the backs and out to the wings as the seoring agents. In this they have attained a high standard. Scrummaging and line-out work is terrifically vigorous: the forwards seldom weighed 12 stone, but what they lacked in wieight and height they certainly made up in dash. They often beat our big men for the ball and alwaysheld their own until the end of the game when pure superior strength overwhelmed them. The inside backs excell in passing and tackling-to naila man he had to be put down ball and all, otherwise he would get the ball away. They seemed to be able to pass standing on their left ear. But for all this, they lacked initiative, preferring to pass straight out to the wing, often without drawing an opponent. The New Zealand method of cutting in or putting their ears back and going for the line was unknown to them.

According to our standards the crowds (often as many as 40,000) are most unsporting. Any Japanese gain would be hailded with shouts of delight, but a brilliant movement by our team would appear to leave them cold. This was not bad sportsmanship, but merely an indication of the intenses nationalism of the people. It was a case of playing for Japan and cheering for Japan.

On the contrary the Japanese players themselves were the very finest sportsmen in our sense of the word: there was never a suspicion of moaning or putting in the boot. And they could teach New Zealand how to take an international beating.