Could Japan join Rugby Championship? Michael Leitch talks tier 1, Asia and Eddie Jones

If arguably the toughest thing to crack in international rugby is a glass ceiling, few are better qualified to give career advice than Michael Leitch, of Japan.

Whether aiming to join Europe’s top table, or outwit a southern hemisphere giant, or graduate from whipping boys to knockout kings, it pays in union’s global game to know your place.

But the Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo flanker intends to keep shaking up the world order with club and country, and sees admission to elite competitions as the way to do it.

Leitch’s first target is clinching a semi-final spot with Toshiba as Japan Rugby League One concludes this weekend. Beyond that, the 33-year-old wants to mix it with the best from abroad.

A World Club Cup has been mooted, as has including Japan in loftier test circles such as the Rugby Championship, and Leitch is in favour.

“Go back a few years and we were playing in the Asian Five Nations, which was a great tournament in its own right,” Leitch said. “But for our standard of play, we need to face opposition that are stronger than us. We had a long period playing mostly tier-two teams. The key for Japan is to keep playing tier-one sides.”

The Brave Blossoms left behind the relatively small pond of the Asia Rugby Championship after winning it as usual in 2017. That pond’s biggest fish is now Hong Kong, who themselves are vying to reach World Cups – although heavy defeats await teams when they do break in. That was Japan not so long ago: they lost 145-17 to the All Blacks in 1995, and it was little better (83-7) by 2011.

“We have a responsibility to help other emerging teams grow in their preparation for World Cups,” Leitch said. “But for Japan’s progress, we need to play stronger opposition.

“If we were to join a league where we get to play teams that are very competitive, that would be great for us.”

League One is already bringing in more foreign players and top coaches.

“[That] has really helped the national team,” he said. “For Japanese players to play alongside the likes of Matt Todd [the All Blacks flanker now with Toshiba] has made a massive difference.”

Standards rise but upgrades in status are rare. Ask Georgia, talked of for promotion to the Six Nations but firmly locked out, or Italy, who got in but were out of their depth, or the Pacific nations, whose drain of talent to richer countries saps their only means to stem the exodus: winning matches. Or Scotland, who in 117 years of trying have never beaten New Zealand.

Japan, though, with Leitch as captain, became upwardly mobile. At the 2015 World Cup, coached by Eddie Jones, they beat South Africa in perhaps the sport’s greatest ever upset. In 2019, on home turf, they reached the last eight, seeing off Ireland and Scotland in thrilling style. In 2023, they will look to qualify from their pool at the expense of Argentina or a Jones-led England.

“I think we’re everyone’s second-favourite team,” Leitch said. “We still are regarded as underdogs. It’s a hard one to brush off.

“With Eddie having worked in Japan, he’d be one of the coaches with the most knowledge of us. My motivation is not to beat Eddie, it’s to get out of our pool. In the back of my head, it would be nice to beat England at a World Cup, but there’s nothing personal about it.”