After the South Africa upset, Japan lost 45-10 to Group B runners-up Scotland, then beat Samoa 26-5.
Advertisement
“And to come to this tournament and win three out of four games is a super effort from the team, it just shows the quality of players that we have and how hard they’ve worked to achieve this”, Jones said.
While often something of a procession, the Pool stage at the 2015 Rugby World Cup supplied plenty of drama.
“I think obviously there is a concentration of club wealth in the northern hemisphere, there’s no question that the salaries are very high in France and in England and it’s very tempting for players to ply their trade in the northern hemisphere”, Gosper said. When it comes down to the test matches themselves this World Cup showed that the pressure of being the hosts can have a huge impact and baring on individuals.
They become the first team to exit the competition despite notching up a hat-trick of triumphs but have been one of the great successes of the group stages.
“Maybe tonight, there were 30 million people watching in Japan – that’s the whole of the Australian population, plus the kangaroo population, New Zealand and all the sheep”, said Jones.
Video Japan’s emotional celebrations after unbelievable win over South Africa! “They play a fantastic brand of rugby and we knew going into it that they were going to be clinical and they were”.
“I’m exhausted”, he said after the 28-18 win over the United States on Sunday.
The continued absence of Bradley Davies, whose Welsh team face South Africa in Saturday’s opening quarter final, means James Gaskell vies with former-Northampton Saint James Cannon for the other starting second row spot.
Ball-in-play time increased to 43 percent, while the number of tries scored decreased from an average of 6.1 per match in 2011 to 5.8, demonstrating the improving defensive lines. “It’s a hard problem, fitting 48 matches into six weeks”, Rugby World Cup Ltd. spokesman Alan Giplin said.
His 58 points leave him just two short of best at this World Cup, with the lead now held by Scotland’s captain Greig Laidlaw.
In the end, none of the tier-two nations were able to make the breakthrough into the knockout rounds, but there are still four high-quality matchups to look forward to next weekend. It’s all about the team. More of that is wanted. “Our desire is to have as much as we can within a calendar”.
And they were treated to another festival of rugby with Kotaro Matsushima, Yoshikazu Fujita and Amanaki Mafi scoring the crucial tries for Japan.
Record ticket sales and packed fanzones have helped World Rugby to hit or surpass most of their tournament targets off the pitch, while officials have been extremely satisfied with the action on it during the 40 pool games.
THE DRAW: After all the criticism of the 2015 draw being conducted three years ago, rendering the current rankings nearly meaningless, there’s no guarantee the draw for 2019 will be made any closer to the tournament.
Advertisement
“We are working with the union to make sure there is the same vision so we all work together for the same goal, which didn’t happen in the past”, he said.
