WITNESSING
SPORTING HISTORY
Sports fans are notoriously prone to inappropriate hyperbole,
but on rare occasions the superlatives are justified. Japan’s
victory over South Africa at the Brighton Community Stadium
during the Rugby World Cup was one such occasion; this was
the biggest upset in the history of rugby and surely one of the
biggest in any sport. I have never seen a match quite like it and
Brighton will forever have its place in rugby history.
No one saw it coming. There was a
relaxed carnival atmosphere in and
around the stadium before the game.
Japanese supporters, decorated in red
and white face paint and draped in the
national flag toured the perimeter of the
stadium, soaking in the atmosphere and
the September sunshine and sharing a
joke and the odd selfie with their South
African counterparts. There was no
tension, because the result was a foregone
conclusion. In the bars inside the stadium,
us neutrals reflected on England’s
winning start against Fiji and discussed
optimistically how far we would go in the
competition; we didn’t see that coming
either! The screens around the ground
showed Canada shipping 50 points
against Ireland and there was little doubt
that a similar fate awaited Japan.
The Japanese were known to have decent
skills, but they were rugby minnows and
there was no question of them being able
to withstand the power of the massive
Springboks. After all, Japan had won only
one previous World Cup game, some 24
years ago. Their opponents were double
winners of the Webb Ellis trophy and their
record going into this year’s competition
was 25 wins from 29 World Cup matches.
It was a mismatch typical of the group
stages of the competition.
The Blossoms started well and went
ahead with an early penalty, but the
enormous South African pack soon hit
back with a try and there seemed little
hope of the Japanese resistance lasting
long. However, the Japanese dug in and
against all expectations they limited the
half-time deficit to two points.
Over half-time beers there were a few
raised eyebrows at how good Japan had
been, but there was little doubt that their
first half effort would take its toll and that
as they tired the South Africans would pull
away and win comfortably.
Suspicions of Japanese fatigue were
confirmed when one massive South
African forward and then another powered
over for second half tries. It had been fun
while it lasted, but any hope of an upset
now seemed fanciful. That was until a
moment of magic which turned the game
on its head. The Japanese won a line out
and ran a sublime move which left the
South African defence grasping at thin
air and resulted in one of the tries of the
tournament. Unbelievably, as the game
neared its final stages, the scores were
level! As the South African supporters
sat in stunned disbelief, the Japanese
supporters, genuine and adopted for the
day, went wild.
The South Africans took the lead with a
penalty and, again, it looked like Japanese
hopes had been dashed, but by now
they believed and so did the crowd.
They came again, pounding the South
African line until the Springboks cracked
conceding an easy penalty which would
bring the scores level. To the disbelief of
everyone, including their coach who was
screaming at his team to take the kick, the
Japanese turned down the kick at goal
and chose to go for the try which would
win the game; a decision which would
have come back to haunt them, were it
not for the extraordinary events which
followed. Under immense pressure and
amidst an ever-increasing barrage of noise
the Japanese kept their nerve, holding on
to the ball deep in to injury time before
launching the move which led to the try
which sealed the greatest of victories.
Normal service was subsequently
resumed with the South Africans
responding strongly to this shock defeat
to make it to the semi-final and Japan,
despite two further victories, failing
to progress to the knock-out stages.
However, on that sunny September
afternoon in Brighton, anything was
possible!
Rob Bell
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