WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — After nearly 20 years in Japan’s professional leagues and after four World Cups with Japan’s national team, New Zealand-born lock Luke Thompson is in a unique position to observe the growth and development of rugby union in Japan.
When he first came to Japan at the age of 22, he was a rarity among foreign players playing in a relatively new professional competition. Most of the import players were at the end of their careers, looking for a lucrative contract before retiring.
Thompson spoke to the Associated Press from his deer farm in Cust, near Christchurch, on New Zealand’s South Island, during a short break before returning to his club, Urayasu D-Rocks, which plays in the second division of the League. from Japan.
A new league season kicks off in Japan on Saturday and it’s a very different environment than Thompson experienced when he first landed there. Thompson has seen the league grow in stature and quality to become a magnet for the best players in the world, no longer at the end but at the height of their careers.
At the same time, the Japan team is less than a year away from another World Cup. Thompson played in the 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups and has seen the so-called Brave Blossoms blossom to become giant-killers in the last two world tournaments.
Thompson lived through that era of improvement. He first played for Japan in 2007 when he naturalized and was selected for the national team by then-coach John Kirwan, one of New Zealand’s All Blacks greats. The World Cup that year was not good for Japan. The only minor success for him was a 12-12 draw with Canada in the group stage.
Thompson believes the upswing in the Japan team began at that point, first with Kirwan and then with Australia’s Eddie Jones, who led the team to the 2015 World Cup, where he stunned the rugby world by beating South Africa.
“Looking back now, we went into (the 2007 World Cup) with expectations that weren’t as high as they could have been,” Thompson said. “We were there and we wanted to enjoy the moment, play as hard as we could, but we never really believed that we were going to be competitive. One thing that Eddie (Jones) brought to the team was expectation and belief.
“That process was started by (Kirwan), who increased professionalism within the Japan team and tried to raise the physical abilities of the players and the expectations around their game. That started with (Kirwan) but Eddie really took it to another level and created a new belief, got the support of the players and that translated to the top league as well.”
Thompson said physicality from 2004 to now has “improved enormously”, helped by the introduction of Japan’s Sunwolves into Super Rugby competition, and the “development of Jones’ team was quite amazing” from 2011-15.
He describes Jones, recently ousted as England head coach, as a “dichotomy of personalities”.
“He’s a genius when it comes to rugby in terms of his ability to make the most of what he has,” Thompson said. “But the way he handles things I don’t think is sustainable. That seven-year spell that he’s had with England, sometimes that can be too long. A four-year stint with him was probably enough for Japan.”
Thompson “retired” after the 2015 World Cup, but current national coaches Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown called him up for the 2019 tournament. Japan achieved historic success, beating Ireland and Scotland in the group stages to reach to the quarterfinals.
“The expectation in 2019 was that the team would perform well in the World Cup, but the only way to do well was to do better than the last team. The only way they could be better than the (2015) team was to make it to the quarterfinals. That’s a pretty hard thing to do, but Jamie and Tony changed things, redefined what was going to work and took it to another level.”
Thompson said Japan could surprise again at the next World Cup, although it is possible they will go in “with a target on their backs.
“Japan will no longer catch anyone napping,” he said. “They are missing a couple of pieces that are important to them. They need a couple of guys to come back. There isn’t a lot of depth in some key points, but if it goes down the right way, they are definitely knocking on the door of the quarterfinals.
The 2019 World Cup in Japan introduced many Japanese to rugby for the first time and built support for the sport, and that detracted from the club competition which, for some time afterwards, drew record crowds.
The COVID-19 pandemic halted that growth, but the new Japan League One debuted last season to widespread acclaim, gaining a new audience at home and around the world. The league features many of the best players in the world and many more are expected to head to Japan after the next World Cup.
“There’s some incredible talent in the league right now,” Thompson said. “Some of the stars are there and it’s nice football to play.
“I think maybe the number of foreigners in the league has grown a lot and maybe that needs to be looked at to continue the development of Japanese players. But in terms of the product and the joy of playing, it was great.”
The new league has strict rules limiting the number of foreign players each team can employ and how they can be used.
Urayasu D-Rocks were relegated from the top flight at the end of last season and Thompson will soon rejoin a team on a mission to regain some status. His teammates include former Wallaby Israel Folau.
“We’re all about promoting this year,” he said. “All we want is to get back to division one, where we believe we belong and deserve to be.”
___
More AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
