New Sunwolves coach Filo Tiatia will face some familiar problems in his first few months in charge of Japan's Super Rugby franchise.
An inability, so far, to persuade Japan's top players to sign for the Sunwolves, a far shorter preseason than any of their rivals and a travel schedule that sees them fly more than twice as many kilometers as the other sides has Tiatia with his back against the wall before he has even had a chance to get on the training paddock.
But showing the determination that made him an All Black and one of the most popular players to play for the Hurricanes (New Zealand), Toyota Verblitz and the Ospreys (Wales), it is a challenge he is relishing.
"I am very excited about leading this group of men and management group in one of the hardest competitions in world rugby," the 45-year-old Tiatia said Wednesday at his introductory press conference.
"The biggest thing will be getting this group of men to build on the continuity of last season and build on the foundations created by Mark Hammett."
Tiatia, who was an assistant under Hammett last season, and Brave Blossoms coach Jamie Joseph both stressed that one of the most important aspects of the Sunwolves was giving players eligible to play for Japan more top quality games.
"In the short term we could buy in big contract players but that won't help the Japan team," said Joseph. "The policy Filo and I have going forward is to develop Japanese rugby to the next level."
Joseph, however, admitted that it would be tough to persuade all of Japan' top players to forego overseas contracts and play for the Tokyo-based franchise.
Sunwolves CEO Yuji Watase said 33 players had been approached but that to date just 14 had given a verbal agreement that they would play for the team.
According to some sources, one reason for the reluctance of players to sign has been the uncertainty over who would coach the side — Tiatia was only appointed last month — and the travel schedule that sees the Sunwolves fly close on 130,000 km to play games in South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand, not to mention three "home" games in Singapore.
"We've inherited the biggest travel schedule of Super Rugby again. But it is what it is," Tiatia said.
"The challenge for us is how we do become the best organized and prepared team when we travel the world. We are crossing so many timelines that we need to prepare so we can perform when we hit the ground."
However, when it comes to preseason preparation, the Sunwolves are once again at a disadvantage.
The Top League does not finish until mid-January and there are two rounds of the All-Japan Championship following that. So the Sunwolves will have just one warm-up game — against a Top League All Star XV in the new stadium currently being built in Kitakyushu on Feb. 18 — before they take on New Zealand's Hurricanes, the reigning Super Rugby champions, in Tokyo on Feb. 25.
"We have three weeks of preparation and then we play the Hurricanes," said Tiatia. "So it is going to be a tough challenge. But it's something we did last year and we are going to try and improve on what we achieved last year."
The Sunwolves won one, drew one and lost 13 last season, though they were far more competitive than many believed they would be.
And Tiatia is hopeful the team can improve, while playing a brand of rugby that keeps attracting fans to Prince Chichibu Memorial Ground.
"We want to play fast rugby not just in terms of our body profile but also because it's an exciting brand of rugby. My responsibility is improve the team to get performances that are acceptable and get as many of our players as possible going on to represent the national team."