Japanese Go “Step By Step” To Meet All Blacks

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31029, 7 April 1966, Page 19

Japanese Go “Step By Step” To Meet All Blacks

The willingness of the opposing sides to play the game with the true Rugby spirit was perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the Doshisha University team’s tour of New Zealand, the manager of the side (Mr S. Konno) said at Lincoln College last night.

Had the home teams used their forwards to steamroller the tiny Japanese packmen they would have won easily, he said. “When your forwards become loose and start romping around —then we are in trouble.”

But, to their credit, the New Zealand sides had used their backs as well as their forwards and bright, spectacular games had resulted.

Mr Konno protested that the Doshisha team was not deliberately attempting to play “the spectators' game.”

“The only way we can win is to get the ball quickly to our backs and strive to obtain continuous movement. Fortunately, this makes our play attractive to the crowd," he said.

Mr Konno said the Japanese thought of New Zealand as the highest authority in Rugby and the Doshisha team was making the tour to discover how its standard of

play compared with that in the Dominion. "We showed our cards from the beginning," he said. "We are not strong enough to keep something in reserve. Now. I think, our boys have got used to play with the big boys.” Mr Konno, who captained Doshisha University himself in 1946-47, is very interested in promoting the exchange of tours. Perhaps his next move, he said, would be to explore the possibilities of visits between New Zealand Universities teams and All-Japan sides. But he felt it was far too early to talk about matches against the All Blacks. “We must do it step by step and not rush into it,” he said. Besides the discrepancies in height and weight between the Doshisha forwards and their New Zealand counterparts, the backs had found the gaps were smaller —because New Zealanders’ arms were longer than those of the Japanese, he said. In Japan, too, Doshisha players were often able to make ground in a tackle — “whereas here when they are stopped, they are stopped, period.” From his observations of New Zealand Rugby, Mr Konno said forwards in the Dominion were very strong and half-backs and full-backs had considerable ability; this gave the teams for which they played a strong backbone.

"Your cover defence, too. is very good,” he said. "We can penetrate the first line but your defence is very deep. Ours is too shallow; all our forwards are eager to be on the ball and so our cover defence is not adequate. “But,” he added, “I suppose you can’t hope for too much.” Explaining the Doshisha team’s use of only three men in the line-out when it was the side’s throw-in, Mr Konno said it was felt in Japan that this reflected the mood of the new laws.