Élissalde was Japan's first non-Japanese head coach. Under him Japan beat the Arabian Gulf (ranked 41 in the world) 82-9 on April 16, 2006. The captain was Daisuke Ohata. A week later Japan beat Korea 50-14, again at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium. The Korean team was young and after going 33-0 up at half time, Japan had a disappointing second half.
Japan beat Georgia 32-7 on May 14, 2006. This was the day when Daisuke Ohata scored a hat trick to claim the world record for test match tries. He has now scored 65, one more than the previous record holder David Campese.
Japan lost 16-57 to Tonga in the inaugural IRB Pacific Five Nations game on June 4, 2006 - despite a good first half which ended 15-13 to Tonga. Ohata was injured early in the first half (calf strain) and the side sorely lacked veterans such as Takuro Miuchi (injured) and fly half Keiji Hirose.
Despite a disappointing IRB Pacific Five Nations campaign in which Japan won only the wooden spoon, Jean-Pierre Élissalde was reconfirmed as head coach by the top board of the JRFU on July 14, 2006. He was then sacked in September 2006 for taking a job with a French club Aviron Bayonnais without consulting the JRFU. Osamu Ota then took over as caretaker coach. On 26 October 2006, the Japan Rugby Football Union general manager Osamu Ota announced that John Kirwan would take over as head coach from 1 January 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment