Hello readers I hope you are well and staying safe in this time. So i have been thinking of things to report on from the rugby world and with all rugby action across the world stopping for what seems to be the remains of the season i wanted to go back and write about something that i was not able to write about before and that was the last world cup.
It seems unthinkable that the last world cup was in Japan and that only a few short months later the world would be cancelling all sporting events and now the Olympic games has been suspended until 2021.
The world cup was the last global major sporting event that has happened and there is now going to be a long wait for the next event.
In this time of difficulty people turn to lots of things to support them though. For me and for many sport offers a great support because it shows what happens when a group of people come together and how a whole nation can change and support each other. Sport gives people hope and gives nations joy.
So what i wanted to do was revisit the Rugby World Cup and see how much joy it brought to so many and how it brought Nations together and people together in times of trouble. The 2019 Rugby World Cup was not just only a sporting spectacle that gave joy to millions of rugby fans across the world it was a time when the whole world came together in a time of difficulty for one nation and it was also the story of hope for a nation who needed it most.
So what i want to do is to go though some of the games and the key moments that happened in the tournament and review and reflect on those moments now we have had all this time to let them sink in.
So first of all we start off with the Home Nation, Japan.
Japan where outstanding at the Rugby World Cup and started the tournament off with a bang when they ran out winners against Russia, Japan from the off showed the world that they had come to play and will not be a walk over at their own World Cup. Japan's opening game against Russia was a confident display of close quarter skills and fast running back play, the forwards showed that they where as skilful as the backs with ball in hand, playing a brilliant off loading game in the close, tight areas of the field. The backs where able to find space out wide and with some of the most electrifying runners in world rugby out wide they exposed the weak Russian defence and ran in try's for fun. There powerful, fast and physical defence dominated the contact area and the Russian attack was stopped time and time again. A moment of light for the Russians game when Japan made a few errors in there defence and the Russian players capitalised and managed to get a couple of scores, This showed the Russians never give up attitude but unfortunately it was not enough to stop the Japanese onslaught and Japan ran out very convincing winners 30-10. They had defiantly shown that they where a team that where not to be underestimated at any point in a game and had the ability of the field to score from anywhere.
We all had seen the performance they had put in 4 years earlier against the Springboks in Brighton. It seemed that they had improved from that and where going to be a force in their own World Cup.
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