All Blacks pose for a group photo after the team's welcome ceremony of the Rugby World Cup 2019 at Zojoji temple in Tokyo. Photo / AP
All Blacks pose for a group photo after the team's welcome ceremony of the Rugby World Cup 2019 at Zojoji temple in Tokyo. Photo / AP
COMMENT:
When Michael Palin was attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days he noted that in whichever far-flung corner he found himself, he could be certain to encounter a Scot, an Irishman and a Kiwi.
It was not so much a humorous observation by the celebrated writer and comicactor, but a statement of fact that acknow-ledged the intrepid nature of people from those three nations.
The Scots were the foundation of the British Empire back in the day, always willing to serve wherever they were needed, easily and readily transportable.
Kiwis are natural explorers. Isolated from a world they want to see, it's in the DNA of most New Zealanders to pack a bag and live out of it for a time.
That the first person to reach Earth's least hospitable four square metres at the top of Everest was a Kiwi, is not such a surprise or coincidence.
And the Irish are natural wanderers, happy to roam the Earth in search of some good craic. Stick them in Mumbai and it won't take long for a little Dublin to emerge.
It's a generalisation, of course, but the premise is sound that Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand will all find a way to enjoy Japan and in doing that, will give themselves the best chance to perform well at this World Cup.
People hold flags of Scotland to welcome the rugby team in Nagasaki, southern Japan ahead of the Rugby World Cup. Photo / AP
All three will settle to life in a country that is wonderfully different and complex. All will find a way to make themselves at home in a country where the old and traditional ways collide with a younger generation who creep closer to the West.
Japan will not be for everyone but it will be for the Scots, Irish and Kiwis, a home away from home for as long as they are. And this will matter because not every side is going to cope with the heat, the food, the culture and the strangeness of it all.
The fact the All Blacks spent two weeks in Japan last year could end up being a huge factor at this World Cup.
They have given themselves a good taste of it all. They know, to some extent, what they are getting into.
The little things shouldn't rattle them, which is not something that can be said with any certainty about some of the other contending nations and at least one of them is going to implode.
The Welsh, if the stereotypes can be allowed to persist, have never travelled well.
Back in their 1970s pomp they were never the same force away from Cardiff. The lads from the valleys weren't equipped to cope with foreign lands and the story behind many Lions tours of that era was of Welsh players being horribly homesick and failing to live up to their reputations as they pined for the familiar.
They will say that isn't the case now but their World Cup record suggests they don't do well living in each other's pockets and they certainly don't do well having to be together for a prolonged period in a foreign country.
England, with the exception of Australia in 2003, haven't been much better at finding World Cup unity.
In 1987, they treated their time in New Zealand as a prolonged frat house initiation and when they came back in 2011, attitudes hadn't changed much.
Ireland rugby head coach Josef Schmidt, right, and his team members arrive at Haneda airport in Tokyo. Photo / AP
They enjoyed one win and then went on an infamous bender that plunged their campaign into chaos as a result of certain players having a bit of a memory blank about whom they were married to and where they had been.
The English, when they travel abroad, seem to have some kind of compulsion to smash down pints and hunt for egg and chips as if they are on a stag do that can only be considered a success if someone is arrested.
It might give them a jump on the All Blacks when they clash on September 21 but the Boks will have been in Japan for almost six weeks by the end of the pool rounds, with maybe another three to endure.
That's a long time away from home and if they had lost and unhappy athletes by the final two rounds it would be no surprise.
Australia might be the one other serious contender takes well to Japan. They seem like a tighter group than they have been and might relish the refreshing change of being somewhere they are recognised and respected and not in the shadow of rival codes.
On the basis of who travels well and who doesn't, the semifinals will feature Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
