Japanese loosie delights fans back home

By CHRIS RATTUE

Hajime Kiso is among the handful of local stars in Japan's "Top League" rugby competition, where overseas players dominate.

And the 25-year-old loose forward has now created a rugby reversal, finding a place in North Harbour's NPC squad - ironic given that the club has lost three big-name loosies to Japanese clubs.

Kiso, 1.96m, the tallest of Japan's World Cup team yet quick enough to also star for them in sevens, is in Allan Pollock and Mark Anscombe's 33-man Harbour squad.

Along with World Cup loose forward Naoya Okubo, who plays for Southland against Canterbury today, Kiso is the first Japanese in line for top-class rugby action here since Yoshiro Sakata sped down the Canterbury wing in 1969.

Kiso said Sakata was famous in Japanese rugby for playing in the top grade here. Kiso received a stack of congratulatory calls after making the Harbour squad.

"Last year we played four World Cup games and all were lost," he said through interpreter Hiroyuki "Hama" Hamamura, a video analyst for North Harbour and the Blues.

"I would like to learn aggression and mental toughness. My big goal is the next World Cup.

"I've played about 10 games for Silverdale and I think I have got better. I was surprised and pleased to get in the North Harbour team."

Hamamura goes a little further.

"He is a very special case. Most Japanese people can't believe he has made it into such a high rugby standard here."

Kiso, a systems engineer, played alongside Leon MacDonald and Tabai Matson for Shizuoka-based Yamaha, who have a sister-club bond with Silverdale.

He is primarily a loose forward, where North Harbour intend to use him, although he was pressed in to lock by the small Japanese team.

Harbour have lost Troy Flavell, Ron Cribb and Matua Parkinson to Japanese clubs, leaving All Black Craig Newby as their remaining star loose forward.

North Harbour go into a camp at Whangaparaoa next week. Kiso - the name he is known by in the Japanese tradition of using surnames - then gets his playing chance in trial games against Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty before the NPC opener against Taranaki on August 14.

Kiso will have some idea of what he faces. Super 12 games are shown live in Japan, although NPC matches are not available.

If he does well, head coach Pollock hopes he will come back next season.

Pollock, who returned to Harbour after coaching Toyota, said Kiso was the biggest Japanese rugby star alongside national captain and flanker Takuro Miuchi and flying wing Daisuke Ohata.

"Kiso is going to have less time than he is used to to make decisions here, and the game is a bit more physical," Pollock said.

"But having said that, he was good enough to play at the World Cup in the tight five. And the guy can really play. He's got great ball skills, and serious raw athletic ability. We'll see how he goes in these trials, but I give him every chance.

"Rugby is a world game and we see many New Zealand players in Japan, so it would be nice if a top Japanese player made a name for himself over here."