JAPAN shocked South Africa - and made the rest of the tournament sit up and take notice - with an extraordinary, historic victory over the former world champions. The Japanese had not won a game in the Rugby World Cup since 1991 before this, but they deservedly beat the Springboks in this first match in Pool B to throw the group wide open. Their next opponents, in Gloucester on Wednesday, are Scotland.
Time after time in this extraordinary game, it looked like what we have come to think of as the natural order would assert itself: that South Africa, even this out-of-sorts, second-string South Africa, would rouse themselves and put the game to bed. Twice they scored tries deep into the second half - tries that would, in other circumstances, have spelled the end for their opponents.
Instead, the Japanese, who had taken the lead, hit back late in the game. Very late. Almost too late, in fact, as we were in the fourth minute of overtime when substitute Karne Hesketh scored in the left corner.
At that point South Africa had spent some five minutes defending magnificently, and they looked as though they would hold on. But they had substitute prop Coenie Oosthuizen yellow-carded a minute before the end of regulation time for illegal play close to his own line, and the loss of a man made a crucial difference.
The other crucial factor at this stage was Japan’s decision to go for the win. They could have settled for the draw when awarded a penalty - full-back Ayumu Goromaru had been deadly with the boot all day. Instead, they kicked for touch, and when the lineout was halted they had several scrums on the South African five-metre line.
At last the pressure told, and Hesketh dived over to complete the greatest upset in the history of the competition.
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