Kicks off tonight.

England gonna smash it.

Japan 19-12 Ireland: Dazzling display gives hosts shock victory
By Michael Morrow
BBC Sport NI in Shizuoka
6 hours ago From the section Rugby Union 1319

Japan v Ireland
Ireland led 12-3 but were eventually outplayed by the tournament hosts
2019 Rugby World Cup Pool A: Japan v Ireland
Japan: (9) 19
Try: Fukuoka Con: Tamura Pens: Tamura 4
Ireland: (12) 12
Tries: Ringrose, R Kearney Con: Carty

Hosts Japan pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Rugby World Cup history as they beat world number two-ranked Ireland 19-12 in Shizuoka.

Tries from Garry Ringrose and Rob Kearney saw Ireland lead at the break, although three Yu Tamura penalties kept the game to within one score.

Replacement Kenki Fukuoka dived over in the corner on 59 minutes to put the Brave Blossoms in front.

Tamura's 72nd-minute penalty sealed a monumental win.

Not since Japan's win over South Africa four years ago in Brighton has rugby witnessed a result that will resound around the world in the way this one will.

This was not a result borne of Irish indiscipline or stage fright, but of a truly stunning Japanese performance in front of a cacophonous crowd that lifted their side with a stunning noise that greeted every metre gained, tackle made and turnover won.

It is a result that will, regardless of what happens in the next six weeks of rugby, leave a legacy for generations to come, and will send rugby into a new stratosphere of popularity within the country.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/49849736

Rugby World Cup 2019
Michael Cheika embarrassed at tackle confusion in Australia’s loss to Wales
• Cheika: ‘I am not sure I know the rules anymore’
• Australia beaten 29-25 in World Cup pool game
Paul Rees at Tokyo Stadium
Sun 29 Sep 2019 15.26 BST
Michael Cheika said that as a former player he was “embarrassed” at the confusion the crackdown on high tackles is causing in the World Cup after another match was held up by constant reviews on the big screen.

Australia’s head coach was speaking after his side’s 29-25 defeat by Wales, which leaves them on course for the more difficult route to the final with England and New Zealand likely to stand in their way.

The Australia wing Reece Hodge was banned for three weeks after being cited for a dangerous tackle on Peceli Yato the previous week which left the Fiji flanker concussed, but when Wales’s replacement fly‑half Rhys Patchell made a similar challenge on Samu Kerevi here it was the Australia centre who was the subject of the review and penalised for going into the challenge with a raised forearm, although the crowd did not know which of the two was being scrutinised.
Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... -world-cup

I am more impressed by the pointy nips beating last year's six nation's finalists than us sticking the boot up the retard's bumhole

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:35 am I am more impressed by the pointy nips beating last year's six nation's finalists than us sticking the boot up the retard's bumhole

The dirty, cheating cunts. Two yellow cards surely due. I might also point out it only takes 80 minutes to finish this this game, you fat, lazt American cunts

A long read:
Rugby World Cup: One man's search into Japan's mysterious rugby past
By Becky Grey
BBC Sport in Yokohama
Reward for 10 years of dedicated study - Mike Galbraith's labour of love is perhaps now finally at an end

An 1874 game of rugby in front of Mount Fuji portrayed in The Graphic magazine

There is a small, white plaque hidden away in the back streets of bustling Yokohama, so hard to find that even the man responsible for its creation has to ask for directions.
That man is Mike Galbraith, a historian who has spent the past decade seeking to uncover the truth about Japan's rugby history.

The plaque is modest in size but, with a rugby ball on top, it may attract a few fans as the World Cup final in the city's stadium draws closer.

And within its inscription lies the seed of a remarkable story: one involving samurai, an armed cricket match and a long-running feud about the true origins of a sport now taking Japan by storm. Sometimes history can be more fantastical than fiction.

The love 72-year-old Briton Galbraith has for his subject is clear from the moment you meet him. Our first encounter is on a crowded platform at Shibuya station, home to Tokyo's famously busy crossing. He has promised to take me to the sports club in Yokohama where he is historian.

A passionate man, Galbraith bridles at the official version of Japan's rugby past being spun out before this World Cup. As soon as we get on to the train he launches into his alternative tale. At times, it is hard to keep up. We almost miss our stop.

But when we eventually make it to the club - a low, white, rectangular building being repaired after a recent typhoon - he starts again from the beginning.

Ten years ago, Galbraith helped organise a tour of Japan for a British rugby team. A history graduate, he offered to contribute an article on the origins of Japanese rugby to the tour programme.

Before he got on the case, the generally held belief was that rugby had been introduced to Japan in 1899 by two Cambridge graduates, Edward Bramwell Clarke and Ginnosuke Tanaka.

But Galbraith found evidence that it had actually been played much earlier.

An article dated 26 January 1866 speaks of a "football" club, as rugby was known then, founded in the port of Yokohama.

That was five years before England's Rugby Football Union was founded and earlier than any known club in Wales came into existence.
Full article: https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/49878877

Do you reckon these tough little leather-ball ninjas will ever beat the All Blacks?
It's hard to imagine, but they are the only team that would give me pleasure by whipping little New Zealand's fearsome giant's arse.

Rugby World Cup: Jubilant Japan on brink of first quarter-final with Samoa win
Host team delight fans with their third straight victory to boost hopes of qualifying for last eight for the first time
Japan play Scotland in Yokohama on October 13 in final pool match that will decide whether they go through
Reuters
Published: 9:38pm, 5 Oct, 2019

Kotaro Matsushima scored a bonus-point try deep into injury time as Japan moved to the brink of their first Rugby World Cup quarter-final with a 38-19 pool A victory over Samoa at the City of Toyota Stadium on Saturday.

The hosts, who turned the tournament upside down when they beat Ireland last week, moved to the top of the pool with 14 points and also secured their third victory in the pool phase for the second successive World Cup.

The loss ended the Pacific islanders’ chances of their first place in the knockout phase since 1995, although the grouping is not likely to be decided until Japan play Scotland in Yokohama in the last game of the pool phase on October 13.
https://www.scmp.com/sport/rugby/articl ... -samoa-win

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Sat Oct 05, 2019 9:53 pm Rugby World Cup: Jubilant Japan on brink of first quarter-final with Samoa win
Host team delight fans with their third straight victory to boost hopes of qualifying for last eight for the first time
Japan play Scotland in Yokohama on October 13 in final pool match that will decide whether they go through
Reuters
Published: 9:38pm, 5 Oct, 2019

Kotaro Matsushima scored a bonus-point try deep into injury time as Japan moved to the brink of their first Rugby World Cup quarter-final with a 38-19 pool A victory over Samoa at the City of Toyota Stadium on Saturday.

The hosts, who turned the tournament upside down when they beat Ireland last week, moved to the top of the pool with 14 points and also secured their third victory in the pool phase for the second successive World Cup.

The loss ended the Pacific islanders’ chances of their first place in the knockout phase since 1995, although the grouping is not likely to be decided until Japan play Scotland in Yokohama in the last game of the pool phase on October 13.
https://www.scmp.com/sport/rugby/articl ... -samoa-win

No focus piece on the topless gentleman who attends the games in body paint? He's certainly a tv favourite. If they keep going as they are now they should easily beat the Scots.

World Cup rugby matches cancelled as typhoon approaches Japan. No replays.

2 key Rugby World Cup fixtures cancelled over typhoon fears
10 October 2019 06:38
Rugby World Cup organisers cancel England's game against France and New Zealand's clash with Italy as Super Typhoon Hagibis bears down on Japan.

Tokyo - Rugby World Cup organisers took the unprecedented step on Thursday of cancelling two games - England v France and New Zealand v Italy - as Japan braces for Super Typhoon Hagibis, likely the biggest storm to hit the country this year.

Both games were in the projected path of the large and powerful typhoon, which currently has a "violent" rating - the highest category by Japan's weather bureau - and is due to hit the Tokyo area on Saturday.

Sunday's four games, including the Pool A shoot-out between hosts Japan and Scotland in Yokohama, near Tokyo, remain under review, said tournament director Alan Gilpin.

"We've taken the very difficult decision to cancel certain matches in the affected areas," Gilpin said.

"While it's regrettable, we've made, we believe, the right decision with everyone's safety as the priority," he added.

Tens of thousands of fans, many of them visitors from abroad, will be affected by the cancellations - the first in the tournament's 32-year history. Their tickets will be fully refunded, Gilpin said.

Japan, whose capital Tokyo hosts the Olympics next year, is battered by around 20 typhoons per year and is one of the world's most seismically active countries.

But Gilpin stressed he had "no regrets at all" about bringing the World Cup to Japan, the first Asian country to host the tournament.

"I think what you've all seen over the last three weeks absolutely in every respect vindicates the right decision to be hosting a World Cup here in Japan," he said.

He added that World Rugby had looked "pretty exhaustively" at other options for the games, including switching venues, but "we couldn't guarantee consistent contingency plans across all those games safely for all the teams and fans involved".
- 'Typhoon gods' -

Seven games were slated for the final weekend of the pool stage, when matches are tightly packed and cannot be rescheduled. Cancelled games are recorded as 0-0 draws, with both teams awarded two points.

England and France have already qualified from Pool C, with Eddie Jones's men top of the group, but Pool A hangs in the balance ahead of Japan's final game against Scotland in Yokohama on Sunday.

If that game were abandoned, Scotland would be eliminated and Japan would qualify for their first quarter-final as shock group winners, with Ireland runners-up.

Australia's game against Georgia on Friday will go ahead, as will Saturday's match between Ireland and Samoa, which is in Fukuoka in Japan's southwest, out of the predicted path of the storm.

Jones said: "So someone is smiling on us - the typhoon gods maybe?" after his team got an extra week's rest before a likely quarter-final match-up with Australia.

The Scots, unsurprisingly, urged organisers to find a solution, saying they "fully expect contingency plans to be put in place to enable Scotland to contest for a place in the quarter-finals."

Hagibis, packing maximum gusts of up to 270km/h, is currently projected to batter the Tokyo and Yokohama area on Saturday.

The storm "is predicted to be the biggest typhoon of the 2019 season and is highly likely to cause considerable disruption... including likely public transport shutdown and disruption", said Gilpin.
https://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/RugbyWo ... n-20191010