Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks, ed B fifteen.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Years to the day since one of the biggest upsets
in Rugby World Cup history.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
He goes leapt he's strong, great tackle by stress the
tron the color movie, it's impossible. I got a word
(00:42):
and how all the count if just incredibles for Japan.
They were courageous and not kicking the goal. They went
for the top.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Lid with that man.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
After your show, it's a real good strength harp, the
plastic perfection here at the corner and ask him to
steal the game for Japan. One of the most famous
victories in the history of sports that go as far
as saying not just in the game.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And by at north for a cherry blesson.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It became known as the Brighton Miracle. September nineteen twenty
fifteen September twenty here in New Zealand, Japan beating South
Africa thirty four thirty two in Brighton, scoring the winning
try in the eightieth minute. Kose Ono was Japanese first
five that day, one of his thirty four test matches.
He's now head coach of Sun Tory Sun Goliath and
(01:33):
he joins us. Now, Kosa, can you believe it's been
ten years since that day?
Speaker 5 (01:39):
No, I can't.
Speaker 6 (01:40):
I was actually surprised when you mentioned it or got
the call to have to take the call about it.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
It's gone like pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
What stands out most when you think back to that day?
Speaker 6 (01:52):
Yeah, I probably thought it was a miracle really, like
we trained pretty hard for five months pre that game
with Eddie and a lot of camps in that But yeah,
if I had a spare ten dollars, I probably wouldn't
have put it Entrepanele in that game myself.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Did you feel a degree of confidence going in though
you as you say, you're prepared, well, you had a
good coach and I want to talk about eating a
moment and some good players. Did you feel a degree
of confidence?
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Yeah, Look, you never know until you get there, because
you have your Pacific Nations Cup and you have your
pre World Cup matches and things. But you never know
until you're sort of in the environment and see the
spring box side to get named and then and then yes,
what series?
Speaker 5 (02:37):
So who you're up again?
Speaker 6 (02:38):
So I don't know at the time, probably not, But
as the game went on, definitely. You sort of saw
our confidence grow and probably there's their game sort of
made to be.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
I don't know that. I think they started thinking about
their game. Really.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's got a South African side too, It's not like
they put out a beat team against you. Some big
names and there Brian Habana played that day, Scott Berger,
Victor Mattfield, many others. How did you avoid being daunted
by their lineup?
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Well, I played with Free Prayer in Scopburg at Suntory
of the previous year, so we already had a bit
of an inkling of what we were up against, and
there were a lot of South Africans playing in the
Japanese league at the time, so we.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Knew a little bit about them.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
But when they turned into when they wear the green jeres,
it's a little bit different. So I suppose we just
knew what our strengths were and didn't go too far
away from them. That was playing with pretty a lot
of speed and moving the board, which seemed to work.
So yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, no, sorry, So at what point during the game
did you think, actually, we're not going to get run
over the top of here. We were a chance?
Speaker 7 (03:49):
Oh, It's always hard because even in the All Black
sells for a Africa game the other day, like, you
just never know when one side is going to crack,
and usually the spring Wats can bring a lot of
power in the second half and when you would.
Speaker 6 (04:03):
Hang on for a while, whether that be ten minutes
or sixteen minutes, we just didn't know until we were
up in the game. But you know, ten minutes into
the game, we felt pretty confident, and I think our
confidence grew when we Leachi scored that try off the mall.
I think it might have been about twenty twenty five
minutes into the game. And then I think at the
point in the second half, halfway through the second half,
(04:25):
rather than that, I think that scored two more tries.
Rather than go for the posts they are sorry, go
to the corner for another more, they opted for three points,
which is trying to build a scoreboard, rather than the
way that they'd been scoring their try. So you knew
that they were sort of almost protecting their lead as
opposed to just going for going in seven. So yeah,
that gave us more confidence than probably what gave them
(04:48):
at that point in the game.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I'm just checking the scorecard here and it says that
you were replaced with seven minutes to go? Does that
sound right? Did you watch the last few minutes from
the sideline?
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (04:57):
Me and for me standing side side on the sideline.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
How was that?
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Yeah, we were just a spectator by then.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
We were just riding the emotions with the crowd. Probably.
I just remember the crowd just being really green at
the start of the game and the warm up and things.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
But as the game we're on, like I don't know what,
it just started to turn red and it was almost
like the Springbok fans were sharing a good game on
but probably hoping that they didn't lose in the end. Yeah,
we were just all a part of it. So, yeah,
the seven minutes was a bit rollercoaster and such. But yeah,
the guy's out there like, yeah, it was pretty crazy finishing.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The game and dat it was well they were South
Ariga head thirty two twenty nine. You know, the hood's gone,
You're still playing and then can't hiss Keith goes over
in the corner. What's the emotion like when that happens?
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Yeah, like a miracle happened. Like it's one of those
moments in life that I've had probably. I couldn't say
how many, but a lot of people come up to
me where they knew where they were, who they were with,
and what they were doing at the time that it happened,
because they were so shocked. It's one of those events
in life that people would just remember vividly and yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Like I've been.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
I think how might've been half a dozen years ago
we were down at an end sharing concert done Dunedin
and a student guy I grabbed Carnes because I was
with Karn at the time and said, oh, Grabdnan and
the bar and said, your knt heskith. You put me
through university because I had X amount of money on
you to score a try or something.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
You didn't have the winning ticket.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
But yeah, it was just a little stories like that
that sort of pop up every now and then, which
is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
But you mentioned for me for me Aki Tanaka of course,
who was playing for the Highlanders of that time, so
we saw a lot of them over here. How influential
was he in your team at that time?
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Yeah, him and probably a lot of others.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Probably about six others had played Super rugby the previous year,
and obviously Forma was probably the shining light and amongst
all those guys that had played the MPC and then
represented the Highlanders and playing alongside Aaron Smith was pretty
cool and inspiring for the.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Rest of us to see. So yeah, I had a
big influence in the group we've joined post Super Rugby
that that.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Campaign, and he bought a couple of years of Super
Rugby knowledge and then a lot of confidence that someone
like his size could compete it at that level as well,
and then bring that experience to the team, which was good.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Eddie Jones was your coach? What was he like in
that role?
Speaker 6 (07:30):
Awesome?
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Well, he's just he's just so knowledgeable about the game.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
And then he knew, I think his Japanese background and
his experienced coaching in Japan, knew how to get the
team prepared and play like the Japanese which is playing
quick and moving the ball, and that seemed to suit everyone,
the whole squad really well. And then we spent six
months leading into that which no other probably team gets
(07:57):
to do, which built cohesion and a lot of trust
amongst the playing group and the coaching staff.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
The results are pretty cool in himself, but was hard.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
But when you get the fruits it's pretty cool to
look back while we went through together and then what
we were able to achieve.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And despite winning three of your four Paul games, you
didn't make the knockout rounds as things turned out at
ended at the end of Paul Play, was there a
sense of disappointment with that even given what you had
achieved in Brighton?
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Yeah, probably on reflection at the you know, like it
would be pretty cool to get to the next stage,
which the next group we were able to do in
twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
It was just it was just really hard.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
Like I remember after the Springbok game going up to
Eddie and we sort of gave him a hug and
I was.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Like, how are you well.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
I was like, yeah, we met the spring Box and
he is, mate, we've got We've got Scotland.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
In four days, and I was like, Jesus has already
moved on so quickly.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
But as it turns out, like if you ask the
All Blacks to play the spring Box and then play
Scotland in four days, it's a pretty mammoth task in itself,
let alone Japan.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Just been getting up as the spring Box and then
trying to beat Scotland.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
So it was a pretty Yeah, the cards were drawn
our way, but yeah we did We did what we
could do and put ourselves in a position to get
through and we just didn't have enough points in the end,
so that is what it is. But yeah, it would
have been called to go to another game. But yeah,
pretty we did what we could I suppose.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So where does that day rank in your rugby career?
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Yeah, it'd be number one, just pure sort of commitment
to what we were trying to achieve and then actually
being able to achieve it. Like I still have memories
of I think it was one hundred and forty five
seventeen All Blacks versus Japan and not in nine five Cup.
In my head, I was in primary school waking up
to that game, to putting on the jersey because I
(09:53):
grew up in crosses and yeah, so we're actually wearing
the Japanese jersey, playing the spring box, you know, almost
twenty years after that, and then actually beating them. Yeah
that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, special day, special day. So coaching these days, obviously
it's Tory How Sam How Sam kine go?
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yeah awesome.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Yeah, this will be his third year and he's mixed
right into the group and yeah, his level of experience
and in leadership and voice has been awesome. So yeah,
we're just expecting another that year from him and leading
from the front, being the captain of the team this year.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And you got Cheirs on Colby as well. Of course,
he had a pretty good game last week and against
the Hallplex. I presume you called that. I presume you
called that one.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Yeah, he's amazing, isn't he Like he's People will be
surprised when they stand next to him how small he
is but explosive and how efficiently he moves his body
in and around the big boys especially is unreal.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
So there's a lot to take from Cheers.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
But yeah, having those two guys in amongst the group
less our team knowledge and and.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
And for the i Q a lot too. No, we're
looking forward to having Cheers back when he comes back.
But yeah, it's good to seeing playing well for us.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Absolutely right. Well appreciate I say, you're taking a bit
of a wander down memory lane with us today. Thanks
for your memories, your reflections. Hope you can you can
enjoy the rest of your day as you think back.
We'll probably give you a call in ten years from
now to do it again.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Yeah, no, thank you appreciate it. Now we have a
good day.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, I hope you have a good day. To case
owner there Japanese first five, New Zealand raised, but these
days coach of Sun Tory Sung Golife, Sam Kine Cheersland
Colby and others over there. Ten years ago, I remember
vividly watching that game and it's only ten years ago.
It shouldn't be in the deep dark, distant past. But yeah,
(11:45):
Japan getting up to beat South Africa. So interesting that
Coseono mentioned the one forty five seventeen from nineteen ninety
five and how far the team came. They didn't get
out of the pall that time, but of course in
their home tournament in twenty nineteen they did and continued
to be a rugby force to be reckoned with.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
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