Japan gets boost from IRB decision

Rich Freeman / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter

Japan's hopes of breaking into rugby's elite got a boost Tuesday when the International Rugby Board announced that traditional tours would be returning to the international calendar.

The sport's governing body said in a press release that the IRB Council "approved a new global 10-year playing schedule that will shape the test landscape in the run up to Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan."

The highlights of the schedule, which commences in 2012, are the return of tours to the Pacific islands, North America and Japan and an integrated Tier 2 schedule.

The decision gives Japan the chance to take on quality teams it has rarely been able to play.

"A core component of the new schedule is an integrated test schedule for targeted Strategic Investment Unions, providing the platform for increased competition and growth through the delivery of more ranking tests between Tier 2 nations and matches against touring Tier 1 sides for the first time in several years, with tests in North America, Japan and the Pacific islands," the IRB said.

"Good stuff, that's fantastic," said Japan coach John Kirwan when told of the news.

Kirwan has, for some time, lamented his team's inability to get fixtures against countries ranked higher than Japan.

"Impossible," he said of recent attempts to get a test match against some of the established rugby nations.

"We need to be playing and beating the teams just above us in the rankings," he said. "That's the only way we can get better."

And he hopes the new schedule will only lead to bigger and better things.

"What the leading nations need to do now is take the next courageous step and set up a horizontal competition so you have promotion and relegation from the Six Nations and Quad Nations. That's the pathway to the money. Imagine if we won the Pacific Nations Cup and then had a playoff with Argentina.

"At the moment, countries like Japan, Georgia and Romania have no chance of having a go at the TV rights."

The last time Japan hosted a top 10 nation, outside the PNC, was in 2005 when Ireland played a two-test series in Osaka and Tokyo.

The last tour Japan hosted was in 2001 when Wales lost to Suntory and a Pacific Barbarians team before sweeping the two-test series.

In other rugby news:

--The All Blacks and the Wallabies will return to Hong Kong in October to play a Bledisloe Cup test, officials said Tuesday.

The two sides first played in the former British colony in 2008 before bringing the historic fixture to Tokyo in 2009. This year's match is set for Oct. 30.

(May. 19, 2010)