Japan aiming to make history in Almaty

The Japanese were favourites to beat Hong Kong, but nearly doubled their score from the same fixture last year. Veteran number 8 Angela Elting scored the opening try in the first minute and six other tries followed before half-time with wing Marie Yamaguchi completing her hat-trick after touchdowns by Elting, Takako Matsudaira and Rei Yamada.

Being 41-0 up at the break might have resulted in some team easing off before the final, but Japan continued where they had left off  Yamaguchi added a second half hat-trick and Japan ultimately crossed the Hong Kong try-line 14 times with captain Misaki Suzuki, Mio Suzuki, replacement Mateitoga Bogidraumainadave and Chisato Yokoo also getting their names on the scoreboard.

The final 82-0 win was by far Japan’s biggest-ever win, and was also the greatest margin of victory by any Asian team… for a couple of hours.

Kazakhstan were on next against Singapore (see video above), and the size of Japan’s win spurred them on to greater efforts as they beat last year’s Asian second division champions 91-7.

To have such large margins of victory between what were teams ranked two and three, and one and four, in Asia was a surprise – and perhaps something of a concern (though some similarly one-sided games were recorded during Europe’s qualification process). Sevens rugby is at least partly to blame here - Hong Kong were certainly missing several of their leading players due their attending a regional tournament in China, and coach Chris Garvey did not seem overly disappointed by the result tweeting “Girls will have learned more in that one game than the entire season, stick at it!” after the game.

However, in Japan’s case at least, the result will have been a reward for nearly two months of preparation. The question now is whether their obvious improvement will be enough to get past Asia’s undefeated Leviathan, Kazakhstan.

Last year the margin was just nine points – the closest Japan had managed for nearly a decade. The Japanese attended the 2010 World Cup as spectators and are determined to be on the field next year. Speaking before travelling to Almaty captain Misaki Suzuki  recalled how valuable the trip to England was three years ago, “By experiencing the unique atmosphere of the Women’s Rugby World Cup final, I have a much stronger feeling that I want to play against the world’s best teams and show Japanese rugby to the world. I want to play on that stage with our team.”

“We are now building a Japanese style of rugby,” explained Suzuki. “All the players have been training very seriously, everyone is trying very hard to step up. It’s very important to play our style of rugby no matter who the opponent is.

“Kazakhstan is the number one team in Asia and it will be the match with a WRWC berth at stake, so I expect that is going to be a very, very tough match.”

Kazakhstan, on the other hand, have had funding difficulties – and a growing conservative minority in the country who are expressing opposition to women undertaking physical sports, including weight-lifting and rugby. The gap with Japan has been steadily closing – at sevens at least Japan have arguably now moved ahead. However, they are at home and the determination shown in their semi-final means that they must remain favourites. But the game looks like being far closer than anyone suspected, even a week ago.

Hong Kong will also play Singapore to decide who will remain in Asia's top four.