Saracens and Japan flyhalf Kensuke Iwabuchi is hoping for a great season this year in England.
Iwabuchi became the first Japanese rugby player to hook up with an English Premiership club, having signed for the team last year once he had finished his academic career at Cambridge University.
He made his debut for Saracens on Dec. 3 against Northampton after coming off the bench in the second half and later played in another game again as a replacement.
Iwabuchi also captained a winning Saracens team in a seven-a-side tournament at Rosslyn Park in London on May 2.
Despite struggling in his first season, Iwabuchi was offered a contract extension by the English powerhouse, which he inked on July 19.
The 26-year-old Tokyo native recently returned home after being called up for Japan's six-game campaign -- the Asian triangular tournament, which involved South Korea and Taiwan, the two-test series against Wales and the Epson Cup Pacific Rim Championship.
Before his departure for London last month for preseason preparations with Saracens, Iwabuchi talked to The Japan Times at the Sofitel Hotel in Tokyo.
Japan Times: What do you think about your first season at Saracens? It didn't seem to go entirely to plan. How did you keep yourself up?
Iwabuchi: I knew the first year would not be easy from my experience at Cambridge. It took me a long time to get to know my team, my teammates and their playing style as I joined the club when the season was about to start and I hadn't had time to spend any time with them during the preseason. Having said that, I was able to make the bench from December and I have been given another chance by the club to play for another year. I'm pleased with that and I have no regrets (of joining Saracens).
It's natural to want to improve your game and compete at a higher level. But I cannot get that in Japan. I've learned many things at Saracens. Since the life of a rugby player is short, I want to complete mine without any regrets.
What was the highlight and the low point for you last season?
The highlight was that I played in some Premiership games. In my debut game, I only played for seven minutes or so and I don't remember how I played so much. But I was happy to see that I had finally made it.
When I started at Saracens, none of my teammates paid much attention to me. But after I played in a training match two months later or so, their attitude changed. You've got to prove yourself with your performance.
What disappointed me was that I didn't get (more) opportunities to play in other games even though I was on the bench. I kept staring at our head coach (Francois Pienaar), trying to send him a message of 'Use me! Use me!' But he didn't budge (laugh). He usually doesn't like changing his flyhalf during a game.
While you were away in London last season, the Japanese Rugby Union made some changes. It appointed new head coach Shogo Mukai and three foreign coaches as his assistants. The Union also signed several players, including you, on a professional basis. What do you think about these changes?
I don't think things have changed so much. It's happening slowly and gradually and that's good for Japanese rugby.
But Japanese rugby cannot survive without the help of companies and, I suppose, this is where the Union has to find a balance.
The Union has hired some fulltime professional foreign coaches, which is a step forward for Japanese rugby. But I don't see any changes in the attitude and thoughts of the players about the national team and the game.
If you look at our first test against Wales (a 64-10 defeat), some of our players gave up playing halfway through the first half after we gave up a big lead to our opponents. That's an abandonment of the game and shouldn't be allowed if you are a real professional. In Japan, the players are guaranteed not to lose their place even when they don't do well on the national team. That may be good for them but is bad for their attitude as players.
Have you noticed any changes in the playing style of the national team?
I was shocked after our first two games, against South Korea and Taiwan, and I wondered what was happening. The players were not really ready and the coaches didn't seem to have a clear vision of our game at the time.
But we gradually grew and then made our tactics/strategy clear for our second test against Wales (a 53-30 loss). That is what I didn't see with the 1999 World Cup team. But in that second test against Wales I think we showed what our team is trying to do. That's a big difference.
In our game against Samoa (on July 4), in particular, we were going to test various things, but I had to be replaced (in the 20th minute) as I injured my finger right after the start of the game. That was a shame. I don't think Japan ever played according to any particular tactics before. It just collected the best players and formed the national team. That was it. And when we lost, the players were then blamed for their poor physical condition.
Rugby is a sport that reflects the ideas of the coaches, and the coaches should use players they feel play to their tactics. The current national team has just started to adopt this philosophy
Doesn't the team need to play more? Six international games over a season doesn't seem enough for a team to establish itself, does it?
Right. It's important to have more games as Japan is preparing for the next World Cup. The Union should make a good schedule for the national team. But scheduling problems have always been here and it's always hard to resolve because of clashes with company teams' training camps. Our national team head coach really has to beg and persuade company teams to release their players for the team. Unfortunately, that's the only way he can get his team together at the moment. But I wonder if certain players are really interested in playing for Japan? Don't they have a desire to improve their game?
Some players complain about the training sessions of the national team. But if you look at it from another perspective, playing for Japan can give you the chance of playing abroad. Nobody abroad watches the Japanese domestic competitions such as a Waseda-Meiji college game or a Kobe Steel-Suntory game. I always get excited whenever I am called up for Japan either at 15s or 7s.
Did you have any problems when you played with your national teammates this time around?
I just couldn't do anything about it. That's why I wasn't on the team in the first test against Wales. I couldn't combine well with my Japanese teammates as I couldn't help playing in the style I play with Saracens. I suppose (scrumhalf Wataru) Murata might also have had a hard time with this. (Murata played for Bayonne in the French League for the last two seasons.) If you as flyhalf fail to complete a pass to your teammate and are intercepted by your opponent, it could cost your team some points. If that happens, it's regarded as your fault rather than the receiver's.
At Saracens, I didn't have any problems combining with my teammates. That's probably because of the players' ability to cope with different situations in a game. Japanese players can deal with things that have been pre-arranged. But they cannot cope with something unexpected. If one player, for example, breaks through for a scoring chance, his teammates often don't always follow him. In the Canada game (on July 8), No. 8 (Yuya) Saito broke through on a few occasions, but only one of them ended in a try. That kind of thing happens because of the quality of rugby they have played.
You play for one of the top clubs in Europe but cannot really use your experience for the national team. Doesn't it frustrate you?
Well, in a way. But even if I played very well for Saracens, that doesn't mean I can be of benefit to the national team. It has something to do with what kind of rugby the national team wants to play. For example, in the past, New Zealand had two flyhalves Grant Fox and Frano Botica. Fox was like (Keiji) Hirose and Botica was like me and the All-Blacks picked Fox as he fitted their game plan. (Shotaro) Onihi played at flyhalf the other day, but that might be better for the side as he has been with the team longer than me.
In my opinion, the national team has to be the best team the nation can produce but that doesn't necessarily mean using the best players from each position. Right now, my initial target is to play well at Saracens. Playing in the World Cup and getting through to the elimination round, is another one but it is different from my challenge at Saracens.
How do you think you will do this season with Saracens?
This time it should be better than last year as I've known my team and teammates for a year. I'd like to show what I can do and establish myself on the team this year.
It still looks tough for me to compete for a place on the first team as we've got (Jannie) De Beer from South Africa, who scored a world record five drop goals (against England) in the '99 World Cup. But it's good for me to compete for a place against great players like him and last season (Australian Duncan) McRae. That's something that I wanted and I believe I can learn a lot of things as a rugby player and as a man through such experience.
Some people advised me to go to another club in England, like (soccer player Hidetoshi) Nakata of Rome, so that I would have more opportunities to play games. But I wanted another chance at Saracens. And I believe that if I work hard and get some good results at Saracens this year, that will help me with a move to another club afterward. I'd like to play in England for three years and then move to France to play there for two years, if possible. As long as I am capable of playing in the top leagues, I'd like to keep playing in Europe.
Iwabuchi has returned to Europe for preseason training with Saracens.
Saracens will start their new season at Wasps on Sept. 2. The regular season runs through May 11 with the playoffs slated from May 18 to June 18.