Japan should disband foreign legion after World Cup exit

So Japan are out of the World Cup. The Asian champions were predictably beaten by Argentina in their final group game to bow out of the tournament with hardly any fuss. Japan have represented Asia at all four World Cups.

They were invited to the first two tournaments - at the time there were no qualifying stages. Instead, the world's elite - the two Southern Hemisphere giants (South Africa were excluded due to apartheid) and the Five Nations - were joined by nine other countries supposedly representing the rest of the world. But Japan were invited purely for economic reasons.

'Japan was crucial to the Rugby World Cup because of its television and broadcasting rights. It was pure commercial reasons that saw them get the invite,' said Jamie Scott, secretary-general of the Asian Rugby Union.

There was a lot of controversy when they were picked ahead of arch-rivals South Korea for the 1987 and 1991 tournaments. The Koreans were unhappy for they were the reigning Asian champions - from 1986 to 1992 - having secured a hat-trick of titles.

It was only in September 1992, in Seoul, that Japan regained their crown.

Korea rightly claimed that the Rugby World Cup organisers were wrong to invite Japan for the first two tournaments as representatives of Asia when they were the champions. You can't fault the Korean logic. But the RWC gave two hoots to logic when what really mattered was commercial gain.

For the first two World Cups, Japan fielded homegrown players and found themselves outclassed.