The Day Japan Beat The Springboks
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Tomorrow, 20th September 2017, will mark two years until the start of the 2019 Rugby World Cup to be held in Japan. The Rugby World Cup will be held in 12 venues across the island nation and various countdown events will take place throughout the week to mark the occasion.
In the country's capital city, Tokyo, the William Webb Ellis trophy, to be awarded to the winning captain on conclusion of the tournament in Yokohama on the 2nd November 2019, was unveiled along with a spine-tingling performance of the Maori war-dance, the Haka, synonymous with the game of rugby union.
Promotional events took place to give the local rugby community a sense of what is to be expected. Children took part in a try-scoring workshop in Kobe, Western Japan. Fans in Yokohama were given the chance to capture the moment by taking photographs of themselves scoring ''virtual'' tries, the city is gearing up for an historic occasion as they are set to host the tournament showpiece.
Today marks 2️⃣ years until the start of #RWC2019 🇯🇵
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) September 19, 2017
Fans are pictured pretending to score tries in Yokohama, who host the final 🏆 pic.twitter.com/pX7L0JVdhN
This day two years ago in Brighton, England in front of a packed attendance of 29,219 people. A sensational Brave Blossoms side defeated the Springboks with their outstanding full-back Ayumu Goromaru scoring 24 points. The pack was led by the physical prowess of No. 8 Michael Leitch, who took the fight to the South Africans and Eddie Jones carefully plotted their game-plan from the stands.
Japan stunned the two-time champions to cause arguably one of the greatest upsets the sport has ever seen. Fifty-point underdogs with the bookmakers on the day, Karne Hesketh wrote himself into Japanese folklore crossing in the final minute to win (34-32) an incredible World Cup Pool B encounter.
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