Rugby: Japan may have blown Rugby Championship invite

Japan's Leitch Michael , center, carries a ball during their friendly Rugby match against Australia in Yokohama. Photo / AP

The fallout from the 2023 World Cup hosting vote will soon begin with Japan likely to find out that by voting for France they have damaged their chances of gaining entry into an expanded Rugby Championship.

Japan, which will host the 2019 tournament, is viewed as the most potent emerging force in the global game. It already has an established professional competition, high playing numbers and a much-improved national team.

But what it also has is a population of 120 million and the world's third largest economy.

Some of the world's richest corporations are based in Japan and many are thought to be ready to sink millions into rugby to capitalise on the expected boom in popularity that will come from hosting the next World Cup.

To some extent the post World Cup growth of rugby in Japan is dependent on their national team becoming part of a regular, major competition.

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It will be hard to retain the interest of new-found rugby lovers without the national team being in the global spotlight as part of something meaningful.

In Japan's case that something meaningful is joining the Rugby Championship.

They already have a presence in Super Rugby with the Sunwolves and have been pushing hard for the Sanzaar partners to open the door to the national team becoming part of the show-piece Southern Hemisphere rugby tournament.

Having seen how hard it has been for Argentina to find their feet in the Rugby Championship, Sanzaar has asked Japan to be patient. To get the Sunwolves into better shape and used to the pace and intensity of rugby South of the Equator with a view to seeing how things are placed in 2020.

There is an acknowledgement within Sanzaar that with Japan it is a case of when rather than if they join the Rugby Championship.

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But Japan haven't done themselves any favours by voting for France's 2023 World Cup bid and not South Africa's.

In a show of solidarity, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina all voted for South Africa.

They did so not just because the South African bid had been named by World Rugby as the preferred choice, but because they all felt it was the right thing to do in terms of presenting a united Sanzaar front.

In 2005, when voting for the 2011 hosting rights, Australia backed Japan ahead of New Zealand and the damage to the relationship was intense and prolonged.

Japan may now find themselves similarly ostracised by the South Africans. Japan may find that they have an enemy within, blocking, or at least not going out of their way to support the inclusion of the Cherry Blossoms in an expanded Rugby Championship format.

And that could be seriously bad news for Japan as Sanzaar has previously worked on unanimity when it comes to decision-making. One dissenting voice and no deal can be struck.

It may prove to be an extraordinarily ill-judged decision by Japan to have voted for France. They may end up paying a bigger price for that than they imagined and they may also find that the other Sanzaar partners remain a little bemused by their voting choice as well.

Japan can't expect to come to the Sanzaar table demanding inclusion in the Rugby
Championship having spectacularly failed to support South Africa.

Whatever historic handshake agreements they may have made with the French – perhaps they agreed to support each other in their respective bids to host the 2019 and 2023 World Cups – Japan had an easy out this time because South Africa had been named the preferred bidder by World Rugby.

Japan could have said to France they were going to support the process, that their hands were tied as a result.

But no they went with France and they will have to wait nervously now to see the consequences of that decision.