Rich Freeman - The Japan Times

August 15, 2024

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Rich Freeman

SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE

Jan 24, 2004

All will be decided on Top League's final day

It's often said you shouldn't leave things to the last minute, but the Japan Rugby Football Union will be delighted that its new competition, the Top League, has gone right down to the wire.

SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE

Jan 18, 2004

Kanto freezes Waseda for title

What a difference a year makes.

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Dec 21, 2003

Secom's escape is Sanix's heartbreak

Rugby fans in Tokyo found out on Saturday what Tongans and New Zealanders have known for years -- just how inspirational a player Inoke Afeaki is.

SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE

Dec 21, 2003

Olympic champ really was the full Monti

The news that Eugenio Monti had committed suicide on Dec. 1 at the age of 75 (brought about by his battle with Parkinson's disease) probably didn't raise too many eyebrows, but for those in the know the Italian was the very epitome of sportsmanship.

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Dec 14, 2003

Rugguts shock Green Rockets

On paper this game should have been a formality. The NEC Green Rockets -- the All Japan champion of 2003 and riding high in third place in the Top League against the Secom Rugguts, winless in this year's competition and without so much as a bonus point to show for their efforts.

MORE SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE

Nov 29, 2003

Top League looking to emulate World Cup final

While the rest of the world was watching the final stages of the action Down Under at the Rugby World Cup, it was business as usual for the players in the Top League.

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Nov 3, 2003

All Blacks pushed to limit by brave Wales

SYDNEY -- In the 40th and final pool game of the 2003 Rugby World Cup played at a cold Telstra Stadium on Sunday night, New Zealand beat Wales 53-37 in a cracker of a game.

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Oct 31, 2003

Rugby world takes notice of Japan's inspirational performance

SYDNEY -- They came, they saw and they conquered the hearts of rugby fans from all over the world, but ultimately the Cherry Blossoms left Australia on Wednesday without the one thing they were craving for -- a win in Rugby World Cup 2003.

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Oct 30, 2003

Canada posts solid victory over Tonga

WOLLONGONG, Australia -- Following on from games in cities such as Perth, Adelaide and Townsville, the 2003 Rugby World Cup hit another non-rugby union town when the steel city of Wollongong hosted the game that decided which team would finish last in Group D.

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Oct 28, 2003

U.S. muscle proves too much for speedy Japan

GOSFORD, Australia --They say good things come in threes. Following Sunday's games that saw England and Ireland win two wonderfully competitive games, the United States and Japan produced a pearl of a match at a sold-out Central Coast Stadium on Monday evening.

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Oct 27, 2003

Cherry Blossoms plan to leave Rugby World Cup in style

SYDNEY -- Japan coach Shogo Mukai and a number of his staff will bid the national team farewell on Monday when the Cherry Blossoms take on the U.S. in Gosford in their final game at the Rugby World Cup.

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Oct 24, 2003

Fiji routs Cherry Blossoms to keep quarterfinal hopes alive

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- Japan's honeymoon in North Queensland came to an abrupt end at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Thursday as Fiji used its in-depth knowledge of Japanese rugby to defeat the Cherry Blossoms 41-13.

SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE

Oct 19, 2003

Unconvincing France struggles by upstart Japan

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- Japan may have lost its second game in the 2003 Rugby World Cup but the Cherry Blossoms produced a performance against France that surpassed even their heroics of last week when they lost to Scotland, but won over a nation.

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Oct 16, 2003

Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom Down Under

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- Three days on and Australia is still abuzz with the performance of the Cherry Blossoms.

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Oct 13, 2003

Brave Japan goes down to Scotland

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- The New Zealand and Australian influence on the Japan rugby team seems to have had an added influence off the field as well as on.

SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE

Oct 12, 2003

Australia living up to its 'lucky country' nickname

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- Talk about living up to your nickname!

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Oct 8, 2003

Carrying Asian hopes

Like its opponent in its opening game, Japan goes into the World Cup knowing that the tournament marks the end of an era.

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Oct 8, 2003

Experts tip All Blacks or England for World Cup

Former All Black legend Colin Meads recently caused a stir when he said that he thought England would beat New Zealand in the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. For a New Zealander to admit such a thing was considered by some in the land of the silver fern to be treasonous!

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Sep 22, 2003

Lopsided scores dominate first round of Top League

The new Top League was put on hold on Sunday for six weeks to allow Japan's best (not to mention a number of Samoans, Tongans and Fijians plying their trade in Japan) time off to compete in the Rugby World Cup.

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Sep 14, 2003

Sungoliath kicks off Top League with 54-31 victory

The new Top League may have been established to ensure the next generation of Japanese rugby players can compete on the world stage and Hirotoki Onozawa certainly made his mark with four tries -- but the party that marked the launch of the new league was for a time gate-crashed by some of the veterans...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.

In search of the ‘Japanese dream’

By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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