Christmas, or more precisely ohshogatsu (the New Year), is a time when most people in Japan can take a vacation. But not for the top rugby players at high school, university and company level.

"We were told we could take Christmas Day off if we were religious and wanted to go to church. Otherwise, it's training as normal," lamented Kobe Steel flyhalf Andrew Miller.

With that in mind, I thought I would show solidarity with my fellow rugby players and pass on the traditional jovial Christmas column and concentrate on more serious matters.

The annual high school tournament takes place over the New Year at Hanazono Stadium, west of Osaka. This is shown live on TV and attracts many viewers, no doubt drawn by the enthusiasm of the participants.

However, it also shows up some of the problems faced by Japanese rugby. Players forced to wear scrum caps leading to tackles being made with the head in the wrong position; games played at 100 kph with no tactical know-how being applied; players diving all over the ball to kill it and the referees oblivious to the fact that players should stay on their feet.

Former Wallaby forwards coach Jake Howard, who recently stepped down as coach of the Kobe-based World team, made some telling comments following his side's exit from the Company Championship at the hands of local rival Kobe Steel at the quarterfinal stage.

"The Japanese players are so keen, but at times they are too keen. They need to be more patient, and learn that the game doesn't have to always be played at such a high pace.

"What the game really needs here is good coaches at school level. By the time players get to university, they have got into too many bad habits.

"There are some great players here, Takeomi Ito (from Kobe Steel) is one who really uses his head, but he is the exception rather than the norm."

The players are, however, not helped by the attitude of certain officials and the belief in certain quarters of the Japanese media that the high school and university tournaments are more prestigious than the Company Championship.

At last year's high school tournament, the fate of one of the places in the final was decided by the captains drawing straws after their semifinal ended up all square.

Hardly just reward for all the hard work the players had put in.

Forty years ago in England, the university teams were among the top teams in the country. However, the steady (and, in recent years, rapid) rise in the standards of the club teams has ensured that university rugby is very much a poor relation to the game played in the Premier League.

While it is true that the annual Oxford-Cambridge University game attracts 50,000 fans, that is more a result of the social occasion than the level of rugby on display.

Japanese rugby needs to take this lesson on board.

And to be fair to the Japan Rugby Union, there are signs that this is the case.

The All-Japan Championship was until recent years a chance for the top university team to take on the top company team.

However, the format was changed as the annual game became too one-sided with the company team often running up a score into the hundreds.

A new format was introduced, whereby the top four teams from each competition played, but the result was the same with the university teams hammered in the first round and the All-Japan semifinals being a repeat of the company semis.

This year will see just two university teams enter and from next year the competition will take on a new format, which is still in the planning stages, though the university teams will be noticeable by their absence.

For those "57 old farts," as Will Carling might call them, who think this is doing the universities a disservice, a recent game in Yokohama highlighted the fact that university rugby lacks any real depth.

Keio University, one of the semifinalists in the university tournament, took a mixture of its second and third XV to play the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club.

Fit students who train everyday against rather more mature ex-pats who don't train.

No contest, you would have thought. Wrong.

"At the final whistle it was 31-15, beers for us and tears for them (literally in some cases)" said YCAC captain Ben Kiggell.

University rugby is merely a stepping stone to senior rugby and should be treated as such in Japan.

While the JRU has gone some way to restoring order as far as the students are concerned, there is still much that needs to be done at the top level of the game.

Posters bearing the slogan "Rugby is Back" can be seen all over the subway stations in Tokyo but the question that needs to be asked is "Back where?"

The JRU would like to believe it is back in the public eye, and with the 2003 World Cup qualifying games approaching, the hope is more people will start following the national team.

However, as far as the companies are concerned, rugby is still back in the dark ages.

The present tournament does no one any good in its current format.

The first round of the knockout stage saw just one close game (World beating Sannix 44-31).

The other games saw victories by up to 102 points. What made this even worse was that all of the results were so predictable.

Teams putting up 60-100 points on weaker opponents is not good for the players or fans.

And it certainly does not help players who go on to represent the national team.

There is talk that there will eventually be one league of 10-16 teams playing each other on a home-and-way basis.

Ten teams would probably be better for the game as it would ensure 18 hard, competitive games for the top players in Japan.

Just what they need if the national team is stop its slide down the ladder of world rugby.

The biggest obstacle, however, is the companies who do not want to lose their control over rugby and, in particular, their players.

There have been a number of cases when players have been told by their company that they were not allowed to play for their national team -- be it Japan or an overseas team.

Japan needs to be allowed to put out its best team in order for the game to attract a future generation of players.

As Miller said, "I would love to play for Japan and I hope the JRU and Kobe Steel can work something out. But I am only interested in playing if all the top players can play. I don't want to be on the receiving end of a thrashing because our best players have been prevented from playing."

The JRU has made a lot of noise about how it would like the game to proceed -- 2002 will see if it not only talks the talk but walks the walk.