Japan coach Eddie Jones took his rugby squad out of their “comfort zone” in wrestling and fencing sessions in the build-up to their four-match tour of Europe.
The Australian, who guided the Wallabies to the 2003 World Cup final, forced the Brave Blossoms to spend an afternoon with retired Japanese mixed martial artist Tsuyoshi “TK” Kosaka before they left Japan last week.
Japanese rugby players, like most professional sportsmen in the country, “have generally only ever played the one sport while at high school and university,” Jones wrote in a column for Kyodo News published on Friday.
“They have rarely been asked to move outside their comfort zone.”
Jones, who took over Japan in April, added that players overseas take up a number of sports while at school to “learn different skill sets that they can then apply to their rugby”.
“As many people have pointed out over the years, we are not the biggest team in the world. So it is essential that we look for anything that can give us a competitive edge,” said Jones, who aims to take Japan into the world’s top 10 by the 2015 World Cup.
“Wrestling has long been used by the All Blacks and Wallabies and for me, it was a no-brainer that we get the Japan team doing the same – the idea being that the players would have a better understanding of how to change their body position when coming into contact.”
After his 29-man squad arrived at their base in France, Jones took them to the Fencing Club at Paris University one afternoon.
“Fencing is a sport that utilises speed and teaches players how to win in one-on-one situations,” he said, “and having dressed up in all the equipment and taken part in the warm-up, I can tell you it is a lot harder than it appears.
“The reaction of the players to both sessions was superb.”
The Brave Blossoms’ tour kicks off with a Test match against Romania on Saturday, followed by another against Georgia a week later.