Japan 34 South Africa 32

What an incredible game. Japan, one of the minions minnows of the game, has topped mighty South Africa. They are calling it the biggest upset in world cup rugby. It might be the biggest upset in international rugby ever.

I can recall the early days of Japan playing the All Blacks, and the only tension was whether the All Blacks could score 100 points before the final whistle. They have improved a lot since then but up until this match South Africa has won 25 out of 29 World Cup matches, and Japan had won exactly once – against Zimbabwe in 1991.

But despite being around 40 to 1 underdogs in the betting odds, in the first ever test match between the two countries, Japan prevailed. I doubt (none South African) Kiwis watching the game cheered any less for Japan than they do for the All Blacks.

Again to put this in perspective the odds of South Africa winning the Rugby World Cup are 13/2 and Japan is 5000/1.

By coincidence I was on Radio NZ on Friday and asked about the Rugby World Cup. I said that relatively speaking I wasn’t so worried about South Africa and Australia, but England and France. I commented South Africa had not had a great run lately – however never would have picked them to lose to Japan.

Also of note is Georgia beating Tonga 17 to 10. It’s great to see the game becoming more even.