Japanese World Cup Squad: Know them before you judge them

Former All Black John Kirwan has only been the Japanese national coach since January (although he was an adviser since October last year), which hasn't given him a lot of time to prepare.
Despite bringing knowledge of Japanese rugby from his days playing for the NEC club, he simply wasn't prepared for the cultural challenges facing him in coaching the national team.

"The fact of the matter is that there's been little development in the national side over the years, which is mainly because the players keep killing themselves" the former Italian coach told Hayman's Beard.

"When I turned up to my first training last year, as an adviser rather than as coach, I was surprised to find only the reserves from the weekend's game at the ground. When I asked where the rest of the team was, I was told they'd all committed Hari-Kari, also known as Seppuku, after losing to Fiji"

Seppuku is the ancient Samurai art of ritual suicide, used when a warrior has been defeated or captured. It allows a person to kill themself, whilst restoring their honour.

"I knew that the Japanese team were warriors, and part of the thrill of coaching them is to be able to harness the Samurai spirit, but I can't get it through to them that this is taking it too far" said Kirwan.

Having to replace the majority of your squad every week or so is a daunting task, so when Japan took their only win of the Pacific Nations Cup, beating Tonga in June, Kirwan, and the team, were overjoyed.

"It was great not to have to learn any new names for a couple of weeks."

Special agreement has been reaching with the World Cup squad, with the players agreeing not to commit ritual suicide after each game; rather, they'll wait till they're eliminated from the tournament.

"It's the only compromise I could get out of them. They don't seem to understand how much progress Japan could make if they'd just keep playing and learning"

Japan World Cup Squad:
Forwards: Ryo Yamamura, Masahito Yamamoto, Tomokazu Soma, Tatsukichi Nishiura, Yuji Matsubara, Mitsugu Yamamoto, Hitoshi Ono, Takanori Kumagae, Luatangi Samurai Vatuvei, Luke Thompson, Takuro Miuchi (Captain), Yasunori Watanabe, Hajime Kiso, Hare Makiri, Philip O’Reilly, Takamichi Sasaki
Backs: Yuki Yatomi, Tomoki Yoshida, Eiji Ando, Kousei Ono, Shotaro Onishi, Nataniela Oto, Yuta Imamura, Koji Taira, Bryce Robins, Daisuke Ohata, Hirotoki Onozawa, Kosuke Endo, Christian Loamanu, Go Aruga