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Japan Super Rugby team

Mr Wobbly

Alan Cameron (40)
$1300 a membership, ouch. According to SA rugby mag
I'm not sure how accurate that is. There is no mention of any membership package on the Sunwolves website or in their newsletter.

They were selling reserved seat packages to all five home games but the maximum price for that deal is 50,000 yen.

Pre-booked ticket prices for their home games start at 1,000 yen (about $12.20) for standing behind the goals up to 10,000 yen for VIP seats. VIP is in the grandstand and between the 10m lines.

These prices are high for Japan, more than you would pay for a test match at the same venue and waaaaaaaaay more than a Top League game.

I did hear that all the better classes of seats for their opening game were sold out within 20 minutes though.
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Wow there has been some excellent posts in this thread.

Can some folks please put their hands up to do a bit of writing on the Sunwolves ??

1. A season preview.

2. We don't usually do match reviews that don't involve Aussie teams but we are looking for somebody to do a review of their historic first Super Rugby game - against the Lions in Tokyo.

3. Round 11 - Sunwolves v Force in Tokyo - a preview of the game and a match review.

4. Mini-reports - for the first time we are doing short reports of matches that don't involve Aussie teams and we will collate them in a "Foreign Exchanges" blog every week.

They will be restricted to 200 words which is just 8-9 sentences. An example is here, where the mini-report was trialled for some ERCC games:


If anybody wants to adopt the the Sunwolves (or any other foreign team for that matter) and write a few mini-reports about their games, please advise.


If anybody is interested in writing about any of the above items, please send me a convo.

Thank you.
.
 

Swandive

Allen Oxlade (6)
The Sunwolves beat a Top League XV 52 v 24 today. I work Saturdays and didn't even know it was on. Just caught the last 10 minutes on J Sports. Replay is on tomorrow afternoon but I am playing at that time. Will see if they replay it through the week and report further.
I think Eddie Quirk may have started as was on bench but looked like he had played.
 

Swandive

Allen Oxlade (6)
Starting team:
1. Keita Inagaki (with Rebels last year)
2. Shota Horie (C) (with Rebels)
3. Shinnosuke Kakinaga
4. Timothy Bond (NZ)
5. Hitoshi Ono
6. Tomas Leonardi (Argentina)
7. Andrew Durutalo (USA)
8. Ed Quirk (Reds)
9. Atsushi Hiwasa
10. Tusi Pisi (Samoa)
11. Yasutaka Sasakura
12. Yu Tamura
13. Harumichi Tatekawa (with Brumbies last year)
14. John Stewart (NZ)
15. Riaan Viljoen (SA)

Not sure if this is a pointer to what they consider their top team. Everyone in the squad got a run. Quirk got longer than most - 60 minutes. He switched to No.7 for the second half.

Official Man of the Match was Tusi Pisi. Controlled the game well. Bond added some abrasiveness. Inagaki only had 40 minutes but he would have been my Man of the Match - some good charges and nice low tackles.

2nd Min: Top League XV : 0 v 7 (Intercept try from no look pass from one of the forwards, maybe no.3)
?? min: Sasakura try Score: 5 v 7
?? min: Viljoen try from Pisi cross-field kick Score: 12 v 7
15 min: Viljoen try, Score: 19 v 12
27 min: Pisi try (zigzagged through forwards), Score: 26 v 12
47 min: Quirk try from back of rolling maul, Score 33 v 12
53 min: Yamada try, Score 40 v 12
57 min: Top League XV try Score: 40 v 18
60 min: Quirk off
65 min: No17 try (listed as Koki Yamamoto but looked like Uni student Shohei Hirano), Score 47 v 17
68 min: Yamada try, Score 52 v 17
71 min: Top League XV try, Final Score: 52 v 24
Pisi got 3/4 conversions in the first half. Tamura and Yamanaka got 2/2 in the second half.

Overall impression: Have come together well but not sure this opposition sheds much light on how they will fare. I am worried about depth. The Argentinian No.6, Leonardi, was having a good game until he was taken off injured at the 10th minute mark. Hope he recovers quickly. Walked off by himself so hopefully not serious.
Quirk was solid and got through a lot of work.
The halfbacks were nippy and gave quick service but one of the replacement halfbacks in the second half got charged down on two kicks in a minute (52nd minute).
The second half forward pack also got shoved back a bit by the Top League XV.
It's a pity they couldn't sign a few more of their World Cup squad, namely Leitch, Broadhurst and Ives to add some steal but of course Goromaru and Tanaka would also be handy.
Shota Horie led well from thee front as captain but he only played first half.
Lineouts were OK but I fear they are lacking in height and some of the South African teams will be licking their lips.
 

mst

Peter Johnson (47)
Looks like they are getting in to the spirit of it all! Some great pics coming out.
CbEqny5UkAMv_H_.jpg
 

Swandive

Allen Oxlade (6)
The Sunwolves team to face the Lions in Tokyo:
15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Akihito Yamada, 13 Harumichi Tatekawa, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Yasutaka Sasakura, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Edward Quirk, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Liaki Moli, 5 Hitoshi Ono, 4 Timothy Vond, 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 2 Shota Horie (c), 1 Keith Inagaki.
Subs: 16 Masataka Mikami, 17 Takeshi Kizu, 18 Koki Yamamoto, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20 Yoshiya Hosoda, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Derek Carpenter, 23 Hajime Yamashata.
 

Swandive

Allen Oxlade (6)
的開幕戦
歴史的開幕戦のスターティングフィフティーン
the first three kanji is read as "rekishiteki" in Japanese and means "Historical".
The following three is said "kaimokusen" which which means "opening match" and the katakana that follows says "starting fifteen"
 

Rugbynutter39

Michael Lynagh (62)
Well have to say proven that addition of Japanese super rugby team I would say so far a success.

As given where were at prior to start of competition (in disarray) they have been competitive and with TV viewing stats generated lot of interest and can only benefit building better and stronger Japanese team and growing interest in Rugby in Japan and world game generally.

Well done Sunwolves....and for SANZAR allowing Japanese super rugby team to enter the competition as it is richer for it
 
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