Johannesburg - Eddie Jones, who recently left the Stormers to take up the position as England coach, has been conducting a workshop in Los Angeles, talking about Japan's success at the recent Rugby World Cup.
Mark Egan, World Rugby's Head of Competitions and Performance, said over the past two days representatives from each of the 10 tier two unions had come together at a World Rugby workshop designed to maximise the gains made from the World Cup 2015. The workshop finishes on Tuesday.
“Over the course of the last two days we have be pouring over a myriad of statistics to see which teams have improved their performance from tournament to tournament in key areas of the game, while also examining what has and hasn't worked from a player release, scheduling and a team preparation and assembly time point of view,” said Egan.
“Everyone has been working towards the same goal - making tier two nations even more competitive so that the gap between themselves and the established elite continues to narrow. I'm sure the head coaches and high performance managers in attendance were fascinated to hear Eddie's views on how the gains made at RWC 2015 could be maximised and the secrets behind the Brave Blossoms' success. “
Just over nine weeks have passed since Japan claimed an historic 34-32 victory over South Africa in Brighton - a result that not only lit the touch paper for the tournament to soar to new heights but one that put Asian rugby as a whole firmly on the map.
“Staff at the tier two nations have told me personally that Japan's win gave them the confidence and belief that anything was possible, and as a result they went out to play a brand of attacking rugby rather than just dig deep in the hope of keeping the score down, which had arguably been the case in the past.
“With 30 percent more tries being scored and fewer points conceded in match-ups with tier one nations, it was the most successful as well as the most enjoyable tournament to date from a tier two perspective. Who'd have thought Georgia and Namibia would have got closer to the All Blacks than France!
Egan said World Rugby's hope was to have one tier two nation qualifying for the knockout stages, and with three wins from four Japan would have achieved that goal in any other tournament.
“Undeterred, the bar remains high - higher in fact, as our stretch target for 2019 is to have two tier two quarterfinalists and more shock results along the way. After all, the unpredictability of outcome is what draws people in and makes for great sporting theatre. “The challenge for us is to try and assist the tier two unions as best we can in this process. Now in its eighth year, the World Rugby tier two funding programme is crucial to this.
“The tier two nations have significantly more resources to spend on their elite programmes than they did before 2007, when the investment programme kicked in, and they're also playing more tests against tier one nations than ever before.
“This has clearly been a contributory factor to the levelling of the playing field that we witnessed at RWC 2015. In the Rugby World Cup cycle between 2007 and 2011 there were 25 tier one v tier two fixtures and that went up to 35 between 2011 and 2015.” - African News Agency (ANA)