Japan’s national rugby team, Ryudai, has been winning since its university days.
Japan’s national rugby team, which created a frenzy in the Japanese archipelago by becoming the first team in history to advance to the finals of the World Cup in Japan in 2007, got off to a good start again in France four years later, winning its first match on September 10, 42-12 over Chile, the winner of the US regional qualifying tournament. The team scored six tries with their characteristic speedy attack and earned five points with a bonus point (one point awarded for scoring four tries).
After struggling in the preliminaries in July and August with one win and five losses in six matches, Japan’s players performed as if they were a different team going into the World Cup tournament. Among them, scrum half (SH) Yutaka Nagare has made his presence felt.
He was appointed vice-captain of Japan’s World Cup squad for this year’s World Cup, leading the team along with captain Kazuki Himeno. In the first match against Chile, he started as the game captain after HIMENO missed the match due to calf discomfort. He played a major role in the first match under pressure, but despite the pressure, he controlled the game with his quick and fluid ball handling and highly accurate kicking, and assisted on three tries to lead the team to a comfortable victory.
Nagare, 31, is now at the peak of his maturity, playing in his second World Cup, following the last one. The driving force behind his success is his extraordinary ambition and competitive spirit. Keisuke Sawaki, then coach of Suntory Sangorias (now coach of the Yokohama Canon Eagles), who named Nagare, in his second year with the team, as captain in the 2004-’17 season, when the team won its first Top League title in four seasons, once said of his decision to appoint Nagare as captain , “I always give 100 percent in training, and I am always willing to work hard. I always give 100 percent in training. I can feel that he wants to be better than anyone else.
No matter how strong the opponent, no matter how tough the situation, there is no game that can be lost because it is a competition. The will of such a determined leader pulls the team to the heights they are aiming for. This is the reason why Nagare has won numerous honors with Teikyo University, Suntory, and the Japan national team.
Naoto Saito, who competes with Nagare for the number 9 spot in the Japan national team, is also Nagare’s teammate at Suntory. 5 years younger than Nagare, Saito describes his rival as “having something I don’t have and being good at everything he does,” while at practice they always engage in tense battles, building a tight relationship that helps them to improve each other. This is also a product of Nagare’s character, and his influence on the team is significant.
This year marks his seventh season with the national team, having made his debut in his first test match (an official international match between national teams) against South Korea in 2005. During that time, he has faced no small number of difficulties.
