Rugby World Cup: Japan says sayonara to Brave Blossoms at ‘Rugby Paradiso’ in Tokyo

Here in Chofu a large wall of a local building doubles as a theatre and much like Cinema Paradiso, the glow from the make shift screen lights up the joyous faces of all assembled. It's Japan’s Brave Blossoms versus South Africa’s Springboks, it's the quarter-finals, it’s Rugby Paradiso.

Thousands have crammed into the fanzone in Chofu’s Station Square where there are vendors and smiles aplenty as the food and drink flows. The only thing missing is space. Presumably, local organisers decided on Chofu as one of the two locations in Tokyo because it's eight minutes from the venue where the match was to be played. This is the transfer point for all the trains coming from the city before going on to Tokyo Stadium. It sounded logical enough, but organisers had no idea how massively popular the tournament would be.

They also most certainly had no idea how smitten the country would become by their national team. Every time they play it has been a major event and now that they are in the quarter-finals for the first time in nine tournaments, this will be one of the most watched sporting events in Japan. Their final pool match against Scotland attracted close to 55 million viewers and the elimination match should be even higher.

The crowd, spilling over into the nearby bus terminal and taxi queues, is electric right from the get go. They may not have known the rules of rugby one month ago but they sure do now and don’t miss a thing either. Every time captain Michael Leitch touches the ball, a huge “Leeeeeeeeeeetch” cheer goes up on cue.

Born in New Zealand, Leitch moved to Japan when he was 15 and has been here ever since. Along with speedsters Kenki Fukuoka and Kotaro Matsushima, Leitch and Japan are giving South Africa all they can handle and at half-time the Springboks are only up 5-3.