Japanese Rugby Team

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31009, 15 March 1966, Page 16

Japanese Rugby Team

Since a New Zealand Colts team visited Japan in 1957 New Zealand Rugby players have had a healthy respect for Japanese Rugby. The Doshisha University team which will play its first match in Christchurch next week-end will give away more than a stone a man to its New Zealand opponents and will need a great advantage in speed, agility, and handling ability to overcome this handicap. The contrast in styles between the Japanese and the local teams should prove both entertaining for spectators and instructive for the players.

New Zealand observers in Japan noted with wry amusement that the Canterbury University Rugby team's tour of Japan last year attracted more attention than the visit of a New Zealand trade mission. To judge from preliminary inquiries from Japanese sources, the Doshisha University team’s tour of New Zealand will also receive wide publicity in Japan. On their return, the members of the touring party—no fewer than 22 of whom are graduates in or students of economics or commercial science—will have much to tell their colleagues about life in New Zealand. The Canterbury University team’s visit to Japan was evidently well received there, or the Doshisha University team’s visit would not have eventuated. Rugby followers in both countries will hope for a continuation of these university tours: New Zealanders only remotely interested in Rugby can thank the university players for helping to promote understanding between the two countries.