- Title: Japan's Joseph hits out at media, insisting team wants to play Scotland
- Date: 11th October 2019
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (OCTOBER 11, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** JAPAN HEAD COACH, JAMIE JOSEPH ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAPAN HEAD COACH, JAMIE JOSEPH, SAYING: "Just in the past few days through the media reports that I've read, I feel they've undermined the achievements of the Japanese national team and the significance of Sunday's Test match against Scotland for Japan. NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAPAN HEAD COACH, JAMIE JOSEPH, SAYING: "We feel... we've played and won three Test matches and that has just put us in the best position within our pool." JAPANESE TRANSLATION OFF CAMERA "I'd like to remind everybody it hasn't been a fluke, it's been a lot of hard work by a lot of people." JAPANESE TRANSLATION OFF CAMERA "This team has been in camp for 240 days this year alone." JAPANESE TRANSLATION OFF CAMERA "Whilst the majority of my players are professional in their companies (clubs), we are an amateur rugby team. What that means is our players within camp with Japan do not get paid - or they get repaid around 100 bucks a day. NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JAPAN HEAD COACH, JAMIE JOSEPH, SAYING: "The next point I would like to make is that everyone in our sport - the players and staff - want to play the Test match. JAPANESE TRANSLATION OFF CAMERA "We all want to earn the right to be considered one of the elite teams in the world. JAPANESE TRANSLATION OFF CAMERA "It's important for us to wake up on Monday morning and understand that we're a worthy top-eight team or we're not quite good enough." MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE / NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 25th October 2019 12:13
- Keywords: Japan Head Coach Jamie Joseph Scotland typhoon Rugby World Cup rugby union match cancelled
- Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
- City: TOKYO, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Rugby Union,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001B0NLWSN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: FURTHER SOUNDBITES FROM JAPAN HEAD COACH, JAMIE JOSEPH AND JAPAN CAPTAIN, MICHAEL LETICH CAN BE FOUND IN 5007-RUGBY-UNION-WORLDCUP-JPN-SCO/PREVIEW
Japan Head Coach Jamie Joseph told reporters on Friday (October 11) that he believes his team deserves more respect for their performances in the Rugby World Cup so far.
Tensions have risen ahead of the final World Cup pool match between Japan and Scotland in Yokohama on Sunday (October 13), with Typhoon Hagibis still threatening to scupper the tie.
The unbeaten tournament hosts lead Pool A on 14 points and are within sight of their first World Cup quarter-final spot, while Scotland are in third on 10 and need to beat Japan to give themselves any chance of advancing to the knockout phase.
Second-placed Ireland are on 11 and play the already eliminated Samoa in Fukuoka on Saturday (October 12) in their final pool game.
The Japan-Scotland match, which is scheduled to kick off at Yokohama Stadium at 7:45 p.m. (1045 GMT) on Sunday, however, could still be abandoned, with Hagibis expected to make landfall on Saturday and bring destructive wind and rain.
Should the Yokohama match be cancelled, Scotland and Japan would receive two points each, meaning Japan and Ireland would finish as the top two in Pool A and reach the quarter-finals, providing the Irish beat Samoa.
Joseph though insisted they wanted to play the match and reach the last-eight on merit - not by default - hitting out some media reports saying both the tournament hosts and organisers would be happy to not play the match.
"The media reports that I've read, I feel they undermine the achievements of the Japanese national team," said Joseph, who restored the inspirational Michael Leitch to the captaincy after trying to take some pressure off him over the last two games.
Joseph said his side also wanted the match to go ahead.
"What is important for us is waking up on Monday morning and understanding we're a worthy top-eight team or we're not," he said.
(Production: Jill Gralow, Tim Hart) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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