Two crucial matches in the Rugby World Cup face cancellation or disruptive 11th-hour shifts to new venues as teams, organisers and tens of thousands of fans in Japan await updates on the progress of one of the most violent super typhoons in recent history.
England’s match against France on Saturday could be moved hundreds of miles south, while Scotland’s decisive meeting against the hosts on Sunday could be played in the country’s far north, according to sources.
Scotland will be praying their 61-0 bonus-point thrashing of Russia in Shizuoka on Wednesday will not amount to nought if their final Pool A game with Japan is cancelled because of powerful winds and heavy rain Super Typhoon Hagibis is expected to unleash on the Tokyo region over the weekend.
World Rugby and World Cup organisers are due to hold a press conference at noon local time on Thursday (4am BST). They may be forced into taking the unprecedented step of cancelling the two games as the category five super typhoon heads for an area that includes Yokohama. Both matches were among the most in-demand when tickets went on sale.
The Scots are scheduled to play the hosts at the 72,000-seater Yokohama Stadium on Sunday, a day after England meet France at the same venue on the Pacific coast, south of the Japanese capital. But the stakes are highest for the Scots, who would be eliminated if their match against Japan were to be cancelled, assuming that Ireland beat Samoa in Fukuoka on Saturday.
The potential for a tournament that has won praise for its near-seamless organisation to be disrupted by the weather has turned Scotland’s head coach, Gregor Townsend, into an amateur meteorologist. Asked if he had any weather updates, Townsend told reporters: “I checked the weather app this morning, about eight hours ago, and it did look like it was heading into Tokyo this weekend, unless it has changed since then.
“It is a few days away and it could miss the Tokyo area, or it could still go there and obviously we’ll be getting updates from World Rugby in the next two days as to what the contingencies are. I’m sure that alternative venues and arrangements are being looked at not just for our game but the other games that could be affected by it, England and France play in the same stadium the night before. I know it was getting looked at for the Ireland game as well when the forecast was that it was going to Fukuoka.”
World Rugby’s official position is that any games cancelled because of bad weather are registered as scoreless draws, with both sides awarded two points. But rumours the matches will go ahead at alternative venues were swirling as violently as the typhoon winds approaching the Japanese mainland on Wednesday evening.
Sources suggested the England versus France match could be moved to Oita, in Japan’s far south, while Japan could play Scotland in Sapporo, in the far north. Others have suggested the latter game could be delayed to avoid saddling Scotland with an elimination many would consider a travesty. The French rugby newspaper Midi Olympique claimed both matches would be cancelled.
The stadiums in Oita and Sapporo have retractable roofs, but a late shift in location has the potential to cause havoc for more than 140,000 supporters, many of whom are already in Tokyo and Yokohama.
England and France, who have qualified for the knockout stage with a game to spare, can afford to be more sanguine than Scotland about any disruption. But England’s defence coach, John Mitchell, said Eddie Jones’s players were preparing for all contingencies.
“One thing we really pride ourselves in all our preparation is to be adaptable and flexible for anything that may throw us off,” Mitchell said. “At the end of the day we are looking forward to playing France wherever that may be. It is where our preparation is totally focused and at the end of the day we don’t let that noise enter our preparation. It is not something we decide, that is World Rugby’s decision.”
Asked about the ramifications of not playing the French as scheduled on Saturday, Mitchell added: “We are really looking forward to playing France. If there are other factors outside our control we will find ways of preparing. Ultimately, though, we’re looking forward to playing France and that’s where our focus is.”
For now, all eyes are on Super Typhoon Hagibis, and the forecast does not look encouraging. Japan’s meteorological agency warned on Wednesday the typhoon, which is currently bearing down on the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific with winds of up to 270kph, could make landfall on Japan’s main island, Honshu, over the weekend, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and high waves across a wide area.
Hagibis is expected to be as powerful as four of the biggest typhoons to hit Japan in recent decades, including Typhoon Faxai, which caused widespread power cuts in the greater Tokyo area last month. Faxai, which also delayed the England squad’s arrival in Japan, killed three people and injured more than 100 others and left almost a million homes without electricity.
Additional reporting by Andy Bull in Shizuoka, Gerard Meagher in Kumamoto and Robert Kitson in Tokyo