Rugby: Move to see game blossom

Japan coach Eddie Jones.

A concession by the Japanese bid to play a number of 'home' games in Singapore and Hong Kong is believed to have won them the 18th place in the new Super Rugby competition.

An announcement that Japan is the preferred option might be made by Sanzar in Johannesburg this week. The bid still has a few major question marks over it but Sanzar are thought to see it as a better option than Singapore and are confident solutions will be found to fix the areas of concern.

When confirmation comes, it will be a victory for not just Japan but also Asia, which will have the potential to become a more significant rugby region as a result.

As is often the way with Sanzar decisions, the back story to reaching this point was full of twists and turns and unexpected moves.

To no one's surprise, the three partners - New Zealand, South Africa and Australia - were initially divided over Japan's bid or the alternative Singapore.

New Zealand and Australia were in favour of Japan. They felt it made more sense and was a stronger bid for many reasons. Japan had an established rugby culture, player base, profile and there's significant stadia infrastructure.

Perhaps most importantly, Japan are going to host the 2019 World Cup and Sanzar have the ambition to collectively develop and promote the game there to help the tournament be a success.

The South Africans felt much the same, except for one major sticking point - location. And for the Africans, geography is relevant, as the 18th team are going to be placed in their division.

Under the new format that starts in 2016, three of the African sides are going to be in a conference with the new team and, with no direct flights between Johannesburg and Tokyo, the travel factor was seen as a major problem. Singapore can be reached directly from Johannesburg via a 10-hour flight and was initially the South Africans' preference.

But when concerns arose about the financial viability of the Singapore bid, and Japan agreed not all home games had to be played there, the Africans switched their support.

"What we'd like to think is if we do become the [18th] team, we become the team that represents Asian rugby, so there are a lot of opportunities to play games within Asia, which cuts down the travel," Japan coach Eddie Jones said this month.

"There are always other places to play games. There is no reason why we have to play every game in Japan. So that's a possible solution, to go a little bit closer and decrease the travel for teams coming to Japan. That's a possibility. We could potentially play in Singapore and Hong Kong. They're all opportunities. I'm sure from South Africa you can get a direct flight to Hong Kong."

By becoming, effectively, a pan-Asian bid, the Japanese were also able to alleviate some of the concerns about the extremities of Tokyo's climate. There is usually heavy snowfall in the city throughout February and early March, and temperatures can climb to 40 degrees with close to 100 per cent humidity in June and July.

Japan have also ditched the idea of fielding their national team in the competition and are understood to instead be willing to pick players from a variety of different places.

It's probable they will have to reconfigure their professional competition which runs from September to February so it becomes feasible for Japan's leading club players to also be available for Super Rugby.

If the dates of the Top League can be moved, then some overseas players contracted to Japanese clubs might be willing to then also commit to Super Rugby. The Top League competition is not renowned for being overly physical and, with teams playing 14-16 games, it will be possible for players to be involved in both competitions without too many concerns being raised about their welfare.

It's probable the Japanese franchise will also look to contract a number of players who will appear only in Super Rugby.