Japanese Rugby team will command attention

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31662, 24 April 1968, Page 15

Japanese Rugby team will command attention

'THE touring Japanese Rugby team will play only one game in Canterbury—against a combined Lincoln College-Canterbury University side—but it is certain that it will attract a large following. In 1966, the Doshisha University side which was invited to New Zealand by the University of Canterbury played two matches in Christchurch and produced some brilliant Rugby. The Japanese University side, which also played matches against the West Coast and Buller was regarded in Westport as having far more entertainment value than the touring Lions side which played there. Because of the size of its players, Japanese Rugby can hardly expect to become a

force in International Rugby but there is no doubt that its back play has reached a standard that might well be the envy of far more established Rugby countries. The Itinerary of the Japanese team gives its matches against the university clubs and New Zealand Universities as well as some provincial fixtures and an official game against the New Zealand juniors. The fact that the New Zealand Rugby Union stepped in and gave financial backing to the tour and thus placed it on a semiofficial basis shows that New Zealand’s sphere of influence might be changing somewhat. Rugby following trade rather than the flag?