With less than three weeks to go before the 2019 Rugby World Cup coaches name their final squads, and 41 days before the tournament kicks off in Tokyo, it is a nervous time for players. While warm-up games — and there are plenty this weekend ...

The mental toughness Japan has been developing over the last few years — first seen in a 2013 win over Wales in Tokyo — once again came to the fore on Saturday as it kept alive its hopes of winning some silverware even before ...

Japan's first international foe may have been Canada, and its most regular opponent South Korea, but it is Tonga with whom it has the closest rugby relationship, a rapport that would never have existed without one man's love of the abacus. Five players, either born ...

With Japan set to host what many are calling the most open Rugby World Cup in the tournament's 32-year history, two-time winner John Eales said Monday "attention to detail and luck" will ultimately determine who walks away with the Webb Ellis Trophy. Eales — considered ...

The tone for Japan's win over Fiji on Saturday was set as early as the third minute when match captain Pieter "Lappies" Labuschagne overruled the wishes of Yu Tamura and told his flyhalf to take the points on offer rather than kick for the ...

Preparations for the Rugby World Cup step up a level this week with 10 of the participating sides playing test matches, as players look to impress coaches ahead of the announcement of the final tournament squads at the end of August. Among the nations playing ...

The 2019 Rugby World Cup has been dubbed by organizers as a "once-in-a-lifetime" event. And for many of the more than 400,000 foreigners expected to travel here, it will be their one and only chance to visit Japan. Fans who are used to weekend jaunts ...

As a player Shigetaka Mori, the new president of the Japan Rugby Football Union, knew all about success at the domestic level. As a member of the now-defunct Nippon Steel Corp. team in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, he helped the side win seven consecutive national championships ...

Japan captain Michael Leitch is targeting the Pacific Nations Cup game against Fiji on July 27 for his long-awaited return to action. The 30-year-old back-row forward has not played since Dec. 15 due to a chronic groin injury, but he is back training with the ...

The Brave Blossoms began the second stage of their pre-Rugby World Cup camp on Monday in Miyazaki with head coach Jamie Joseph saying Japan is at the stage where it's respected, but perhaps not feared. However the New Zealander told Kyodo News he is confident ...