Gavin Rich's diary: The calm before the storm

That headline should be referring to the stage of the Rugby World Cup we have reached, with the high pressure quarterfinal now looming for a Springbok team that, to be honest, has had to hype the pressure on them since their opening Pool match against New Zealand.

But of course it isn’t about that. Or at least not only about that. At this time when the quality of the rugby produced in the humid conditions, the encouraging way Japanese fans have embraced the tournament, tip tackles and red cards should be dominating the discourse, it’s actually Hagibis that is dominating everyone’s thought processes.

If you saw that name for the first time you might have had to look twice. Yes, my wife is Scottish so I know what Haggis is. But we’re not talking about edible intestines here. Hagibis is the Super Typhoon that is heading our way here in Japan. Although it is calm outside as I write this and there's no sign of any troublesome weather system, Hagibis' approach towards Japan across the Pacific Ocean has already had an impact by forcing the cancellation of two World Cup matches scheduled for Saturday. A third game is in threat - Sunday’s Pool A decider in Yokohama.

I am pretty hacked off about the England/France cancellation as well as the doubt over the Japan/Scotland game on Sunday. They were the first two games not featuring the Springboks that I was scheduled to be at. One of the joys of covering a World Cup is getting out and watching games where you are a neutral, but in Japan that is a challenge logistically - at least if you are also going to keep your eye on the Boks at the same time.

Cancelling World Cup games is unprecedented and given how much money fans from around the world have spent to get here, it was a decision that would not have been taken lightly. I also agree with All Black coach Steve Hansen that putting safety first is the right decision. Rugby is only a sport after all, not war.

But Sergio Parisse, the Italian captain, was also right when he sounded off on the cancellation by saying “"It is ridiculous that there was no Plan B, because it isn't news that typhoons hit Japan. The alternative is Plan B. When you organise a World Cup you should have one in place."

Exactly my sentiments and I had those sentiments two weeks before the tournament kick-off, when Typhoon Faxai hammered Tokyo. Why are we doing this in typhoon season? Surely the tournament could have started later and gone into the Japanese autumn and winter instead?

PARISSE MIFFED

It is understandable why Parisse is miffed. This tournament is his farewell to top rugby. As it is for long-time teammates, Alessandro Zanni and Leonardo Ghiraldini. A game against the mighty All Blacks would have either been their send-offs or, alternatively, a defining moment of their respective careers if somehow they won it and snuck into the quarterfinals. Instead it turns out the 49-3 defeat to South Africa in Shizuoka last week was actually their international swansong. They go home now, the tournament is over for them, they only played in three matches.

You spend four years building up to this, and that is how it ends? You can’t blame them for being miffed.

SCOTS CONTRADICT DIRECTOR

And neither can you blame the Scots for contradicting what tournament director Alan Gilpin stated at the Tokyo press conference on Thursday. He said there were no contingency plans in place for the fixture, with Italy having also been in a similar boat.

"We looked pretty exhaustively at all the options," Gilpin said.

"It is important to note that where we are is in accordance with what we said we would do before the tournament. Doing that on this scale, so many teams to move around, and to be able to deliver safely the exit of 12 teams, we couldn't guarantee contingency plans consistently. If we can't do it for all, we can't do it for any.”

But Scottish Rugby came out a short while later with this statement: "Scottish Rugby fully expects contingency plans to be put in place to enable Scotland to contest for a place in the quarterfinals on the pitch, and will be flexible to accommodate this."

There was talk of the Japan/Scotland game being delayed 24 hours, which would be perfect for me as I really want to get to a game featuring the hosts at this World Cup.

LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE

Which brings up the logistical nightmare that the typhoon is presenting to not only the teams, but also those of us either writing about the World Cup or following it as a fan. If the Japan game does go ahead on Sunday I’d like to be there, so on Thursday I was considering leaving early for Tokyo. In other words arrive there before the storm hits, see out the storm and then wake up on Sunday and see if the game is going to be played or not.

But then as more than one person asked, do you really want to be in Tokyo to experience the full brunt of a typhoon of the size and strength that Hagibis is expected to still be when she - let’s call her a she - makes landfall? Speaking to some of the locals here in Kobe there is genuine nervousness and fear of what a typhoon entails, and they’ve been through them regularly so their trepidation needs to be noted. Winds of 270 kilometres an hour, and we are talking sustained winds not gusts, must be quite something. Faxai blew the roofs off houses, and there is talk of 5-million people being evacuated from around Tokyo if it gets really bad. So do you really want to go there? Perhaps not. The typhoon will brush Kobe apparently, but not with the same force as Tokyo. Winds here are expected to be around 100 km/hour when the storm hits. Bad, but not the freaky level that might be presented in Tokyo.

EARTHQUAKE PROOF

Another thing, the hotel I am going to in Tokyo is one of those skyscrapers. Where the ground floor of the hotel is actually the 30th floor. Do I want to be that high up when the wind is 270 km/hour. Again, I think not.

The hotel I am in here in Kobe is one of the sturdiest buildings I have ever stayed in. This area experienced one of Japan’s worst ever earthquakes in 1995, and the buildings have been rebuilt to be earthquake proof. And, touch wood, this one does feel like it. Not all the buildings I have stayed in while in Japan have felt earthquake proof. My 19th floor room in Nagoya shook at times like a plane going through light turbulence.

To describe it I would equate being inside this building with being inside a tank - not that I ever have been, I just imagine it - as compared to being inside a mini-bus. It is the sort of place you’d send a head of state when nuclear war is threatened.

HIROSHIMA - A HAUNTING EXPERIENCE

Talking of which, I went to Hiroshima yesterday. Another reminder that this country has been through a lot when it comes to disasters - and not all of them natural disasters. Hiroshima was, as expected, a haunting experience - referring particularly of course to the Atomic Bomb Dome, otherwise known as the Peace Memorial, and the Peace Park surrounding it.

Shew, what a horrible reminder that man can outdo nature in what it can do to man. The atomic bomb dropped from an American bomber exploded at 8.15am on the morning of 6 August 1945 600 metres and 160 metres to the southeast of the Dome, which was then the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. It was because the impact of the blast came from almost directly overhead that the thick outer walls and the steel dome on top of the building escaped complete destruction.

It is a ruin, but a lot of it is still intact, with the decision having been made to preserve the ruin in its current state as a reminder of the atrocity that is atomic/nuclear warfare, as a memorial to those who died and as a peace memorial.

When we walked up the river alongside the Dome and through the park it was a lovely clear day and it was hard to imagine that we were just over 74 years on from the day when an entire city was destroyed and an estimated 140 000 people lost their lives. Hiroshima is actually a very scenic city and worth a visit for more than just the atomic bomb and the reminder of why we should be working for peace.

Listening and reading the tales of the survivors it was hard not to agree with the sentiments of All Black captain Kieran Read, who said while he was disappointed the All Black/Italy game was cancelled, “some things are bigger than rugby”. He learnt that when the Crusaders had games cancelled after the earthquake in 2011 and again after the terrorist shootings in Christchurch.

SUNDAY'S GAME IS MASSIVE

Back to that typhoon. There has been talk that the All Blacks offered to play their game on Friday, and the request was refused. They were then offered Monday as an alternative date, but they refused on the grounds that they’d then have too short a turn-around time before the quarterfinal. That’s all understandable. But if the reports are true, I hope that World Rugby doesn’t think the precedent has been set. Surely no-one will complain if the Japan/Scotland game is played on Monday? Whereas the England/France and NZ/Italy games being cancelled didn’t really change the finishing order in those groups - sorry Parisse, if you really thought you might beat the All Blacks you live in dreamworld - the game scheduled for Sunday is massive.

'THANK GOODNESS'

“Thank goodness we’re not playing a must win game this weekend and are affected in this way”. Those were the words of Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick when I bumped into him when we were both out trying to catch some of the other World Cup games on television the other night.

He’s right. Those South Africans who might think Scotland and Italy are being ridiculous by complaining that they might exit the competition without getting a chance to play their way into the quarterfinals should imagine how they’d be reacting if it was the Boks who were impacted. If the Boks had a must-win game coming up this weekend against a team they were expected to beat and it was cancelled, thus knocking them out of the World Cup, there’d be a tizzy fit back home to exceed even the one that followed the Bryce Lawrence freak show in 2011.

QUESTIONABLE WORLD CUP RULES

Lest it be forgotten, we very nearly did get to experience something similar. In 1995, at our own World Cup, the Durban equivalent of a typhoon nearly blew the Boks out at the semifinal stage. Had the game not been played France would have advanced to the final on the basis that they hadn’t had players sent off at the tournament whereas South Africa had. And had the final remained a stalemate after extra time, New Zealand would have won for the same reason. It seems the World Cup rules have always been a little questionable. Coming to think of it, it isn’t dissimilar to the Cricket World Cup - ask the Kiwis about that one.

LEVEL OF SUPPORT MAKES IT A SUCCESSFUL WORLD CUP

Will the cancelled games cast a pall over the memory of this World Cup? It certainly would for Italians, and for Scots if nature does to them this time what they thought Craig Joubert did to them in 2015. But away from the rather idiotic decision to stage the event in typhoon season, I’d say the level of local support and the full stadiums has already marked this as a successful event, regardless of what Hagibis throws at us this weekend. Which just makes it more of a pity that the World Cup organisers couldn’t have come up with a better contingency plan than sharing points for games that can’t be played as scheduled.