That was astonishing. The fact that Japan turned down a certain draw for shot at glory speaks volumes. Without doubt the biggest upset in Rugby world cup history and one of the most remarkable underdog victories in any sport.
And those last two Japan tries were superb, no flukey opportunistic dashes they were top notch.
What the hell happens in that group now?
(((Scotland)))
May didn’t release the ball when tackled and his off load looked forward to me. It’s at 2:15 here.
Luckily I don’t bet on rugby - I’m too emotionally invested already. Amazing result for Japan, I wish I’d watched it live.
:dubious: that is a stretch. If you roll back far enough in most tries you’ll find far more borderline incidents than those (and FWIW I don’t think May was fully tackled, nor did the offload look particularly forward)
But that’s all by-the-by, the better team stuttered but won whereas far more seismic events have unfolded in the last 24 hrs
That was - impossible. To put it in perspective, Japan’s last World Cup win was in 1991, against Zimbabwe; they’ve only drawn twice - against Canada - since. Astonishing performance, those men will never have to buy their own drinks again. The best part was that it was a well-deserved win, not some dodgy ref’s call fluke; they faced up to the Boks and outmatched them.
One man anticpated Japan’s victory: from a 2012 interview with Japan’s coach Eddie Jones:
I’d say they’ve done that in spades.
Will we see another upset in the three games today?
Samoa v USA - If the USA can play the full game as well as they did for the first 50 minutes against Australia they’ll win. I don’t think they can though.
Wales v Uruguay - Surely Uruguay can’t pull off a Japan here?
New Zealand v Argentina - should be a tight, close match with the All Blacks pulling ahead in the last 15.
So in cricket terms Japan beating RSA is like? Holland beating RSA?
I liked this:
I guess, “I told you so,” would be pretty meager consolation.
I don’t normally gamble, but I had been toying with the idea of betting decent amounts on the “guaranteed” matches. A 1-2% return in a couple of hours. What could possibly go wrong?
Thankfully, I never got round to it…
Yeah, but in a Test match not in a T-20 or summat.
Holy shit! I woke up to the headline “Japan Beats South Africa” and i was sure I must have accidentally navigated to The Onion, or maybe to a story about soccer or sumo wrestling.
Unbelievable. Way to go, Japan. I love seeing the Springboks lose to anyone, and this is sweet.
Wow, that really shakes things up, hopefully this is reflected through the rest of the tournament. It would be great for rugby if it didn’t turn out to be as predictable as the early predictions we made.
And the Pumas are holding up against the All blacks . Wife would be happy if they pull out a win , going to be a tough second half.
Alas, the all blacks looked pretty shaky and quite beatable, I mean if you ignore the winning the game part.
They certainly weren’t firing on all cylinders and their ill-discipline might cost them dear against stronger teams.
You’ve got to imagine that any of the top tier nations will have that Japan-RSA result in the back of their minds. The moment one of minnows puts up strong resistance…squeaky bum time!
After the first weekend’s thrilling upsets, normal service has resumed and yesterday’s three games went to the traditional powers.
Scotland 45 - Japan 10: Japan couldn’t repeat their heroics against South Africa, the short turnaround probably didn’t help.
Australia 28 - Fiji 10: Australia missed out on the bonus point, which might be crucial in Pool A.
France 38 - Romania 11: Romania looked competitive for a lot of the match, but gave up 2 tries when their prop was sin-binned. One of the French forwards might have an early flight home after doing this though. Argentina’s Galarza got 9 weeks for eye-gouging yesterday.
Just the one game today, New Zealand - Namibia. If Namibia keep the margin below 30 I’d say it’d be a moral victory to them
True lisiate, the results were par for the course but there is a definite increase in the competitive qualities of the minor nations.
Japan looked knackered and so the score flattered Scotland by the end but at half-time it was very close and Japan still played some great stuff ( I have to say that before the tournament I had Scotland down as a dark horse and I still pick them to win the group and pose a threat to anyone)
Fiji put pressure on Australia just as they did with England
Romania were rather better than 38-11 suggests.
Here’s hoping that the general upward curve of rugby quality continues, close games make for great stories. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite as excited as a neutral as I was for the RSA-Japan game.
Now then, an interesting thing to consider. Given that some of the minor nations are starting to look better, do we soon get to a point where some of the top names don’t finish in the group top 3 and so are subject to pre-qualifying? We aren’t there yet but…
Also, I think the size of the tournament and the rewards on offer are hitting a sweet spot.
The bonus points on offer for 4+ tries and <7 point defeats are an interesting and valid addition and the auto-qualifying for the 3rd place group spot definitely gives the minor nations something important to play for.
Namibia played well today, reinforcing your point about gaps closing. Any team would be proud of Deysel’s try. The lack of triple digit blow-outs certainly makes for a much better World Cup, although I fear we might see one such result in the last round as squads get ragged through injury and fatigue.
I agree with you about the tournament structure, third place in group qualifying for the next world cup means the lower seeded sides have something attainable to strive for in their pool games. I predicted that Italy will finish fourth in Group D, which I think is still a possibility after seeing a bit of their game against France, and most of Romania’s game against France as well. So we may well see a 6 nations side have to go through qualifying next cycle as it is.
Just one game to look forward to tomorrow, Argentina v Georgia. It should be a tough, bruising encounter, but I think Argentina should win fairly convincingly in the end.
Since I’m in the US, and have neither cable nor satellite tv, I finally got to watch the Japan - Springboks game last night. Wow! Even knowing the outcome that was amazing!
South Africa - Japan will go down as a legendary game.
Well Argentina smashed Georgia, somewhat to my surprise. Three games today:
Italy v Canada both teams are coming off a loss, and Italy really needs this to keep their hopes alive, I think they ought to win fairly easily.
South Africa v Samoa, should be a cracker, with South Africa looking to exorcise some Japanese demons. I think they’ll take it out in the last ten.
England v Walesshould be a mammoth game, but I fear Wales are missing too many of their top players through injuries to overcome England’s home field advantage.
