What's happening
France - Japan

October 18 Match

WHAT'S HAPPENING? (posted 19th October 2003)
Japan's 'Cherry Blossoms' stepped out to meet the French in Townsville's Pool B clash last night. While the French defeated the Japanese 51-29 it was the Japanese who won over the Townsville crowd once again. The Japanese who have been based in Townsville have been adopted by the city. The French players didn't put on a great display during the game - making plenty of ball handling errors and dropped balls.

The game started well for the underdogs when after just three minutes of play Kurihara booted a penalty goal to put the Cherry Blossoms in front 3-0. But, by four minutes later, both Michalak and Rougerie had crossed the line for France! Give credit where it's due, the Japanese team weren't about to give up. When France was offside minutes later, Kurihara was able to kick another penalty goal for the Japanese. Cool!

Onozawa then made a couple of costly mistakes for his team. First he was penalised for not rolling away in the ruck, then he forgot to keep his eye on the ball and fluffed a golden opportunity. Michalak wasn't fluffing his kicks for the French though and potted another penalty kick to take the score to 20-6 with less than 30 minutes of play gone.

The Japanese backline showed its strength with Konia taking the ball over to score under the posts. With this try converted and another penalty goal being successful, the halftime break saw the Japanese trailed by only four points - 20-16. Who'd have thought? Mind you, the French are yet to lose a pool match in any rugby world cup (how's that form!). And tonight was not to be any different despite Japan getting a three pointer moments into the second half bringing them to within a point of the French.

Fabien Pelous and Dominici both went over for tries soon after, giving the French a bonus point for scoring four tries. Kurihara scored another penalty goal, and then France's winger Rougerie ploughed through several defenders to cross for the French. The brave and determined Japanese kept at it though - Onozawa got hold of the ball and recycled it over to the wing and Ohata put on his running boots to score a fantastic try! The score was 44-29 when Kurihara converted the try. Late in the match Jean Jacques Crenca went over for France to bring their score up to 51.

No one really thought the French were going to lose this encounter, but it was awesome to see the Japanese step up to the plate with the guts and determination that they displayed. A lot of talk has been going on since the cup started about it being unfair having minnow teams facing the powerhouse teams of rugby. In my opinion though, these teams aren't going to improve unless they get some 'big' match play - and you just never know what's going to happen on the day. Take the Fiji/USA game earlier in the week where Fiji only just snuck in a win by one point. Another main consideration is of course that this IS the WORLD cup - if there were only a few teams competing then it could hardly be called 'world' - aren't we all quick to criticize the yanks for having world series, world this world that - when in actual fact they're most often meaning USA series etc? So come on people - stop moaning about the difference in teams' standards - we're all enjoying the rugby, don't try to deprive the players from being part of this tournament in the future.