Japan may be the Olympic men’s rugby sevens tournament’s lowest-ranked team, but they believe they have a plan to upset the odds.
But putting it into action has meant challenging centuries of national identity, given it involves high risk and plenty of chaos.
“With the Japanese culture, pride and shame is big,” Japan’s head coach Simon Amor said. “Making mistakes is a difficult one for them because they are very proud of representing their families, their companies, their country.”
His team open their Pool A campaign against Tokyo 2020 silver medallists New Zealand on Wednesday at the Stade de France. They then go on to face world No 2 side Ireland before taking on South Africa, who are world champions in the 15-a-side code.
Amor said his charges had to accept that things would not always go to plan in what some are calling a “group of death”.
“We have done a lot of work these past two years about them understanding how the right type of mistakes are OK,” Amor said.
“What’s important is that we don’t hold back from making mistakes. Because the easy thing to do in sevens is you don’t do anything. You just sit there and take your foot off the gas. But you’ll never achieve anything.”
Innovations including the introduction of a “mistake of the day” prize at training, plus regular group sessions with sports psychologists, have worked.
Evidence of this came when Japan bounced back from defeat by China in their opening Asia region qualifier last November. A last-minute try in the final against Hong Kong sent the team through to a third successive Olympics.
“They are much more relaxed,” said Amor, who was head coach of Great Britain when they won silver at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. “Before, they played with quite a bit of weight on their backs. You could see they were anxious and tense and tight, but you can see they are a lot freer now.”
Having added that to a game plan focused on Japan’s strengths, Amor believes his team have a chance.
“It’ll be high-risk and a fair bit of chaos,” he said. “What you have got with Japan is that the footwork across the board is unbelievable. The footwork and the agility.
“The idea is ‘how can we create one-on-one space for people?’ Then we will create a lot of difficulties.”
Amor’s players are behind his approach.
Powerful back Josua Kerevi said: “Ever since Simon has got on board, we’ve grown not only as rugby players but as human beings.
“Now we’ve got to do crazy things. We have to do the extraordinary to get extraordinary results.”