[/floatr]Stuff: Ground staff halt Kirwan's Anzac-Japan idea
Ground officials at Tokyo's treasured National Stadium stymied John Kirwan's plans for his Japan side to play an Anzac team of All Blacks and Wallabies as a curtain raiser to this week's Bledisloe Cup clash there. Kirwan was wanting to capitalise on the Bledisloe Cup being played in his backyard to create a festival of rugby in the Japanese capital next Saturday...It would give his Japan team some much-needed game time ahead of tests against Canada and also allow the New Zealand and Australian touring squads to get all their players involved ahead of their tests in Europe. "Everyone was keen on that but we had some issues with the ground," Kirwan said of the former Olympic stadium being used because of its 48,000 capacity. The ground staff refused to have two consecutive rugby matches played on their turf. Kirwan was bemused: "It's just pretty anal to be honest ... the groundsman just doesn't get it. It was a pity ... a real shame for our boys and for Japanese rugby because it would have really helped everyone. I wanted Japan to play a curtain raiser and to be fair, it wasn't any fault of Australia and New Zealand that we have some issues in Japan with the groundsman - we couldn't play two games on it in one day...more...
