Canadian rugby players help clean-up efforts in Kamaishi after typhoon leads to game cancelation
Canada missed their chance to play their final Rugby World Cup match due to a powerful typhoon, but the team stayed in Kamaishi on Sunday to help out local residents with their cleanup efforts. Canada were aiming for their first win of the tournament in ...
Kamaishi saluted by fans and players for its resilience
High school student Yukime Sasaki and two other young girls were all beaming smiles to greet hundreds of visitors who stopped by on Wednesday afternoon before a Rugby World Cup game between Uruguay and Fiji. The three were there as "memory keepers" of the 2011 ...
Uruguay upsets Fiji as tsunami-hit Kamaishi hosts first Rugby World Cup match
Wednesday may have been a little breezy, but overall it was an absolutely beautiful day with a vivid blue sky above as Kamaishi Unosumai Recovery Memorial Stadium hosted its first-ever Rugby World Cup game. Uruguay pulled off a stunning upset in the Pool D contest, ...
Fiji plans to pause briefly, then turn it on against Uruguay
The Fijian players will pause in silence before their Rugby World Cup game against Uruguay to commemorate those who died in the 2011 tsunami that devastated the region. Then the plan is to run relentlessly for 80 minutes and put on a show at the ...
A guide to the 2019 Rugby World Cup and its host cities
What to do, see, drink and eat in each of the RWC cities as well as match dates and information on stadiums, transport and accommodation.
Ale-ing economy: Rugby World Cup expected to kick some life into regions beyond Tokyo and Osaka
At Tokyo's Rugby Dinner No Side Club, owner Masakazu Takeuchi is taking no chances: He has got in three times the usual amount of beer as the country hopes to profit from the 400,000 fans expected for the Rugby World Cup. With just three weeks ...
Kamaishi draws strength from traditional ties to rugby
"Kamaishi has the rugby power." About 50 days before the opening day of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, banners can be seen everywhere on the main street in Kamaishi, one of 12 host cities for the event. Traditionally, Kamaishi has been known as a "rugby town" ...
Stadium built on grounds of tsunami-hit Iwate Prefecture schools hosts Japan-Fiji rugby match
Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium in disaster-hit Iwate Prefecture held its first international rugby match Saturday, delighting an emotional crowd made up of residents of the area and fans from all over. The stadium is unlike any other, having been built on the grounds of two ...
Special edition train unveiled in Iwate Prefecture in run-up to Rugby World Cup
A special edition train designed for the upcoming Rugby World Cup was unveiled to reporters at Kamaishi Station in on Tuesday in the build-up to the tournament kicking off across Japan in September. The train, operated by Sanriku Railway Co. and dubbed the "Scrum Iwate ...
Former All Blacks player recalls the day Kamaishi was washed away
March 11, 2011, is a date that will stick long in the memory of former All Black Pita Alatini, and not just because it was his birthday and he was in Japan. Alatini, who played for the Kamaishi Seawaves rugby club, was finishing up a ...
Organizing committee chief Akira Shimazu hopes World Cup will be catalyst for growth
With half a year to go until the first-ever Rugby World Cup in Asia, organizing committee chief Akira Shimazu insisted that the hosts are focused on making the tournament in Japan a "ground-breaking" event. "The previous tournament in England in 2015, as you know, was ...
New stadium gives recovering Kamaishi hope for future
Takeshi Nagata looks out over the pitch from the back stand of Kamaishi Unosumai Memorial Stadium and tugs at the collar of his shirt. He retired from playing rugby six years ago, but his body is still in good shape and his formal clothes ...
