I work in an office where conversation is mostly dominated by blaming others, hatred of our environment, and football. I am fairly sure I was only hired to give the other Crystal Palace fan someone to talk to. I can count the number of informative conversations I've had about rugby there on Oscar Pistorius' toes. Yet the first thing I heard when walking in on Saturday night was an excited conversation about the Japan - South Africa game. I had a long email chain with a friend about just how pumped up he was from watching it. There was a level of general enthusiasm about rugby that I don't always see at my rugby club.
Up until that point, it didn't feel like the Rugby World Cup had grabbed people's attention. There weren't many ads, I didn't hear people talk about it, media coverage was uneven. It feels different now. It feels like Japan has grabbed England's attention.It certainly grabbed my Facebook feed. Given most of my friendships were made at one of a grammar school, a rugby club, or the Officer Training Corps, that's not that surprising, but it backs up the general feeling I'm getting from the media, forums, everyday conversations.
The RFU constantly talks about legacy - the hope that this World Cup will somehow provide the Big Bang that makes rugby big. Maybe even football big. Provide a second 2003, since they didn't really capture the momentum from the first one. You hear it from World Rugby too - the desire to capture more of the globe, get more of the world involved. Japan just gave both bodies the biggest gift it could have hoped for. Even if the history isn't as readily appreciable to those less involved in the game, the drama cut through all barriers. How can you not love a team that backs itself so readily?
It's a flagship game. If you're talking to someone who doesn't like rugby union, point them to the last twenty minutes of it and if they don't feel something positive watching it, then, well, there's just no hope for some people. It's dramatic, it's poignant, it's immensely entertaining - and it's not just the British Empire Old Boys club either. It might not have grabbed the world's attention - Americans seem oblivious based on my limited polling, but then that's easy when you're country is the size of a continent, with MAAR's new foreign correspondent reporting they weren't 'even aware of the pig thing until I started going round telling people "David Cameron fucked a pig!"' Now he has something more interesting to talk about.
What does it mean for Japan itself? They have the professional infrastructure and the funding to be as good as anyone; the decision to award them the next World Cup echoes that. This isn't like the Pacific Islands, forever hamstrung by populations that don't even break into the millions. Their professional game is in ruder health than about half of Tier One by some standards. Yet, eye-catching as this victory was, they couldn't beat any of the Pacific Islands in the summer, with their only victory in the Pacific Nations Cup coming against Canada. The Japanese game needs more of something and what that something is, I don't know. I don't think many people know. Japanese rugby is a surprisingly big fish in our little pond but one that rarely attracts much attention, which says everything we need to know about Japanese rugby to date.
Japan have made history with this result. Hopefully we will look back and see it as even more historic than it now seems.
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