JRLA Saturday Night Fever Football Series!

[Arucard]

JRLA Saturday Night Fever Football Series!

Katsushika Sports Centre

Sat 16th August
Game 1: Tokyo XIII Warriors vs Tokyo Crusaders

Sat 20th September
Game 2: Tokyo XIII Warriors vs Tokyo Crusaders

Sat 11th October
Game 3: Tokyo XIII Warriors vs Tokyo Crusaders

 

[yakstorm]

Go Tokyo!

Nah seriously, great to see the Japanese RLA (Not to be confused with the other JRLA) getting some fixtures back up and going.

 

[roopy]

Finally.
I think Japan will always hold the record as slowest developing nation - but all development is good.

 

[mtngry]

Well, Its fair to say they do not have the Expat support base in Australia that say, Lebanon, Greece or the Pacific Islands has.
AND they have no other competing RL nations within a 9 hour flight.

 

[screeny]

Well, Its fair to say they do not have the Expat support base in Australia that say, Lebanon, Greece or the Pacific Islands has.
AND they have no other competing RL nations within a 9 hour flight.

Since when does sport development depend on Australians in Australia? If we adopt that attitude then I'd agree with your support of Japan...not that I'm attacking Japan, because as has already been said all development is good, but the Japs have to do it for themselves, surely.

 

[deluded pom?]

I think he's trying to point out that Lebanon, Greece etc would be in a very similar boat to Japan without their expats to push things along.

 

[screeny]

I think he's trying to point out that Lebanon, Greece etc would be in a very similar boat to Japan without their expats to push things along.

Yeah I know what he's saying but surely development depends entirely on those on the ground, not on Australians in Australia. That's exactly my point.

Nothing much happens in Greece because there's no one to push it on the ground, and Lebanon has worked because they have staff on the ground. If new nations depend entirely on Australians in Australia to get things moving they won't work.

 

[roopy]

Well the Gold Coast is famous for Rugby League and having more Japanese tourists per square foot than Tokyo. There should be some way to get some crossover.

 

[deluded pom?]

Don't the Japs actually own half of Australia?

 

[roopy]

Don't the Japs actually own half of Australia?

I think they sold us to the chinese.

 

[yakstorm]

What mtngry says is right, the fact they are a 9hrs flight away from any other nation has limited Japan's ability to draw international opponents. Prior to NSW Tertiary touring last year, was Lebanon in 1998.

Despite this, Japan has toured internationally every year since 1998 to other nations, making it quite disapointing that sides, especially the likes of USA, haven't ever returned the favour.

Anyway I would be very keen to find out what ever happened to all the clubs that use to play RL in Japan in 99... Just reading the 1999 Student RLWC programme, and in that year, there were two organisations promoting league in the country.

The JRLA, lead by Max Mannix, had a 6 team league running in the north island, including teams like the Hakuhudo Hawks. Whilst the JRL was based out of Miyazaki and run by Kenji Imanaga.

Was it lack of funding that caused clubs like the Hawks to disappear? Or something else?

 

[screeny]

What mtngry says is right, the fact they are a 9hrs flight away from any other nation has limited Japan's ability to draw international opponents. Prior to NSW Tertiary touring last year, was Lebanon in 1998.

Despite this, Japan has toured internationally every year since 1998 to other nations, making it quite disapointing that sides, especially the likes of USA, haven't ever returned the favour.

Anyway I would be very keen to find out what ever happened to all the clubs that use to play RL in Japan in 99... Just reading the 1999 Student RLWC programme, and in that year, there were two organisations promoting league in the country.

The JRLA, lead by Max Mannix, had a 6 team league running in the north island, including teams like the Hakuhudo Hawks. Whilst the JRL was based out of Miyazaki and run by Kenji Imanaga.

Was it lack of funding that caused clubs like the Hawks to disappear? Or something else?

Playing Devil's Advocate, would you seriously invest money and effort into touring Japan if you were the AMNRL? There's such little development going on there it would seem hardly worthwhile.

 

[yakstorm]

Well you can't always just take, take and take. Seriously the AMNRL took a long time to get going, we know from what some past people involved have said about their early years a lot of the clubs were nothing more than just webpages, and only Glen Mills club was a legit club.

Back in 99 Japan were the more advanced league, with more teams, more players and more profile. Yet since then they have gone backwards, whilst the USA has gone forward.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticising what the AMNRL have done in growing the game in the USA, I’m more saying its disappointing that they haven’t returned the favour to nations like Ireland, Japan and Canada who gave them a hand in their early years.

Anyone who has been involved in establishing a new league will know that domestic internationals are very important. They help in terms of gaining exposure, getting sponsors, retaining existing players as well as drawing new sponsors. Touring halfway across the world usually will get nothing more than a few lines in a few local papers when you’re running a minority sport.

There is little doubt that lack of internationals Japan has been able to host domestically has affected their ability to retain players. Sure other factors will have hurt them as well, but considering they were kind enough to play 5 internationals in the USA, plus send across their top club side one year, it wasn’t impossible for the Tomahawks to make at least one return journey.

Just disappointing, Japan is another one of those nations that could be a lot further advanced now than what it is.

 

[screeny]

I agree with your sentiment, and particularly agree when it comes to USA v Ireland, for example, as this would not only, as you say, repay a favour, but also bolster RLI a lot. But in Japan's case I think it would be a waste of AMNRL money as their visit wouldn't leave any legacy, unlike a visit to Ireland.

There's simply not enough foundation work in Japan - as far as I know, which isn't much admittedly - to support a tour like this. It's like having Australia visit somewhere like Morocco: huge, historic, groundbreaking, but nobody in Morocco knows who the Kangaroos are so it would be a wasted trip in terms of PR and generally assisting the Moroccan's develop RL.

 

[mtngry]

I can maybe answer some questions.

In Japan, After Max M left I am told a following JRL president made some bad decisions which affected the running of the comp. I am not clear on details beyond that.
There is also difficulty in getting grounds, in 2002/3 when the Tomahawks were going to tour, there was not a single public ground that was willing to let Rugby league use it for the international and we had to rent a private, and very expensive ground. this was a common problem, not being able to get grounds.
Rugby union teams, often run by companies or with good commercial links, attracted the Rugby league players.
And finally, lack of inbound tours. I am more forgiving of the AMNRL than most here have been. I was on the tour in 2003 when we won the North Pacific Club championship, and they did look after us paying for accommodation and some meals and a lot of internal transport. They are also very happy to have Japan tour. Many other countries have not invited.

With regards to development in other countries.. Take, as an example, Lebanon. There is now a league there, but I thoughthe first Lebanon team was pretty much all Australian. I think the same for Malta and if all goes well, Portugal. How many players of Japanese decent are there in the NRL as compared to Greeks or Tongans? I am not saying Japan should rely on Australia to supply players or to start the league, but understand that the JRL starts several steps behind.

Next point, yes a trip to Japan for the AMNRL is nowhere near as challenging on the field or as easy off it as a tour to Ireland. But by that logic, no team isolated by distance will ever be toured. Very limiting to a sport.

But I am sure all this has been discussed in a different thread.

good luck to the JRL and the Tokyo Warriors in talking other teams in to regular competition, hopefully one merit league can come from this. and hopefully, most of all
more Japanese can be persuaded to take up the game.

 

[Arucard]

Game 1 resulted in a 28 - 28 draw

Crusaders led at halftime 16 - 8

Was a close game throughout with the biggest lead of the game coming in the first 20 mins 12 - 0 to the crusaders. Anousith Paiphanya was was given man of the match.

 

[Arucard]

Game 2 ended in a 60 - 12 Warriors win

game was played 11 vs 11 in 15 x 4 quarters

They really need to get these player shortages sorted out.
Cant be helping much beating the crusaders a team that plays a slower paced rugby code and has 15 players on the park playing league with 4 players less than what they train for.

A result i wouldnt look too much into.

On the plus side of things the halfback for the warriors had a great game and maybe thyve finally found the voice they need to run the side around.