Japan are gearing up for a tough examination of their set pieces, especially the scrum, when they take on powerful France in their World Cup opener tomorrow, forwards coach Michael Byrne said on Wednesday.
Asia’s top side have long been noted for the speed and talent displayed by their backs, but have struggled when going up against the big packs sent out by the top sides.
In Auckland’s North Harbour stadium tomorrow, they will be going up against what many see as the best scrum in the world.
“It’s going to be a tough day, like most of the teams who played the French, we’ll have a tough day in the scrum,” Byrne said. “We had a pre-World Cup camp in Italy and the boys were exposed to an Italy scrum, which is also a very, very good scrum.”
“We worked hard on understanding how the opposition scrum and we’ve been working hard on our mindset around our scrum,” Byrne said. “When you look at the French and Italian scrums, they pride themselves on the strength part of the game and having a very good scrum.”
“We respect that and we’ve been working on getting our set pieces right. The boys are looking forward to going up against one of the best in the world and we’re looking forward to the challenge,” Byrne said.
Japanese hopes of standing up to the French were given a knock on Wednesday with the news that New Zealand-born lock Justin Ives would be unavailable for the opener as he has not fully recovered from a knee injury he picked up against Italy.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be in the first game. It is unbelievably frustrating,” he said. “The excitement level in New Zealand for the World Cup has just been unbelievable. I would have loved playing the first game. I’m gutted I’m not involved.”
Japan have played in all six editions of the World Cup, but have yet to make it out of the group stages after winning just one of the 20 games they have played (against Zimbabwe in 1991).
Realistically their chances in Pool A against France and tournament favorites New Zealand are next to zero, but they will be aiming to win the other two encounters against Tonga and Canada.
Still, the Japanese players believe they can learn a lot from France and the All Blacks as they continue their long-term program of forging a competitive team to take part in the 2019 World Cup on home soil.
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