Hows Rugby Union competing with soccer and baseball and all those sports?
John Kirwan: Yes, well baseball’s probably the national sport over there, and soccer has had an incredible growth in the last 20 years. Rugby was the second most popular sport 20 years ago, and soccer has sort of taken than over. So these wins are important for us to grade a game. Tanya O’Shea: What’s it like for you, coming from the All Blacks to a culture that’s not Rugby Union based? John Kirwan: Yes, well I played in Japan. I spent four years there at the end of my career, so they are lovely people, it’s a really easy place to live. Obviously you’ve got to like sushi and stuff, which I do, so that’s all good. But it’s a good rugby culture, it’s strong, the big companies like NEC and Toyota, all have rugby teams, so we have some of the world’s best companies backing rugby, which is fundamental, so the game is rich over there. We just need to make sure that we get these wins and keep developing. Tanya O’Shea: And it’s true that when the Japanese are on to something and they see the m
