Another One Team″ of Shiro Tanaka, former national rugby team member: “If it weren’t for my wife, I would have quit much earlier”.

The “little giant” who pulled off the defeat of South Africa at the ’15 World Cup retires at the end of this season.

In 2011, when I participated in the World Cup for the first time, the Japanese national team failed to win a single game. After returning to Japan, I had the feeling that the fans had abandoned us. I was full of a sense of crisis, thinking, ‘I can’t go on like this,’ so I moved to the Highlanders in New Zealand. I got married at about the same time.

My wife was a badminton player who played for a business team, but she retired and followed me to New Zealand. I am a shy person, and without her, I don’t think I would have been able to continue my challenge in a foreign country. Then I would not have been able to play in the ’19 World Cup. I think I would have quit rugby much earlier.”

Shiro Tanaka (39), a 166 cm tall “small giant” who retired at the end of this season, strongly embraced his beloved wife, Tomomi (35), when FRIDAY pointed a camera at him.

Tanaka joined the Sanyo Electric Wild Knights (now the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights) in ’07 after graduating from Fushimi Technical (now Kyoto Kogakuin High School) and Kyoto Sangyo University. He joined the Japan national team in 2008, and participated in three consecutive World Cups until the Japan tournament in ’19.

Tomomi, who married in December 2011, is a badminton player who played with Reiko Ushioda (40), a member of the Olympic team, and others when she was with Sanyo Electric Co. She continued to play for Yonex, but put down her racket when her husband took up an overseas challenge.

In Tomomi’s words, “I wanted to add my experience to support someone who is taking on a very big challenge.

While Tanaka’s English is not good without a drink, the sociable Tomomi actively talked to those around her and quickly built a community in New Zealand, creating an atmosphere that made it easy for Tanaka to play.

With the support of his wife, Tanaka became the first Japanese to challenge Super Rugby, the world’s top league (in which powerful clubs from NZ, Australia, and South Africa compete), and he rapidly improved his skills, winning his first championship in 2003.

He became a key player in the Japan national team led by Eddie Jones (64), who took over as head coach in April ’12. In the 2003 World Cup, he defeated the powerful South African team, which had won the World Cup twice, 34-32. The match against South Africa, which became a legend, was a great success.

In this legendary match against South Africa, Tanaka, who weighed 71 kg, went to tackle a giant of a player weighing nearly 120 kg, but was knocked off his feet and spun around once. Even so, he continued to tackle without fear, an act that is etched in the hearts of rugby fans.

He said, “If there is even one half-hearted person among the fifteens wearing the national team jersey, we cannot win. So we said what we needed to say to each other, regardless of age. I didn’t like the idea of being attacked by someone younger than me, though. I would give my opinions directly to Eddie, too.