Reason for travel: “Business.”
The thrust of the Queensland Reds’ two-game tour is as simple as that one-word answer on the immigration form for arrival into Japan.
This is the start of pre-season not an off-season sightseeing tour.
The value of putting the hard slog of October training into focussed games is the major benefit for Les Kiss, his coaching staff and the 29 players.
No other club in Super Rugby Pacific has created the enviable International Program that the Queensland Rugby Union has put together.
Games against Wales and Tonga in July are now being followed by two games against the progressive Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.
In January-February, matches against the Bristol Bears and Ulster in Europe will be the final springboard into the 2025 season.
For the next week, we hope to give you a glimpse inside life on tour with the Reds.
Day One: Thursday, October 24
All players, staff, kit, equipment and passports accounted for and so begins the nine-hour flight north from Brisbane to Tokyo. Tick.
Those with long memories of Reds tour life will tell you nothing is yet guaranteed.
Former Reds hooker Sean Hardman once managed to check-in in Brisbane and had lost his passport on the plane by the time he tried to go through customs in Johannesburg.
He’s always insisted it was a prank by a certain teammate but never had the evidence on the culprit.
Regardless, the agitated Hardman had to receive replacement credentials from Pretoria and was forced to catch a later flight to catch up with the team.
There were no such dramas entering Japan this time as everyone boarded for the two-hour bus trip to Kumagaya from Narita Airport.
Day Two: Friday, October 25
Birthdays on tour always receive a rousing chorus in the team room. Today it’s the birthday of halfback Louis Werchon, who turns 22.
He’s making a habit of Japanese birthdays, having been a rookie on the 2022 tour to play the Wild Knights when he turned 20.
It’s ramen for birthday dinner with Wests clubmate Mason Gordon.
Turning 22 also makes him the oldest in the starting backline for the Sunday trial match against the Wild Knights. It’s a seriously youthful backline.
At the experienced end of the tour party you have a guy like prop Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, who has a 100-plus Super Rugby appearances behind him for the Hurricanes and the Reds as well as Test caps for the All Blacks and Samoa.
At the rookie end, this tour is a blooding for five players straight from club rugby in the StoreLocal Hospital Cup and Buildcorp Reds Academy.
Wide-eyed is the word when Shaun Anderson, Matt Brice, Hamish Muller, Kohan Herbert and Sebastian Hanna head down to breakfast.
Out of the broad glass windows and back door of their hotel they can see a training field not 30m from where you can sip a breakfast coffee.
The Park Wing hotel is literally built on the deadball line and it’s just the first awakening to how well the Wild Knights have established themselves and turned this patch into “Rugby Town Kumagaya.”
Towering lock Josh Canham may like the location but, at 2.02m, his bed has been built too short or sawn off. It’s an occupational hazard for tall forwards in Japan so his feet will dangle.
The players have a first training run on an outer field. Like Ballymore, the Wild Knights have the benefit of multiple fields.
Day Three: Saturday, October 26
The team hotel has a surprise rugby guest staying there. Well, maybe not such a surprise.
All Blacks great Sam Whitelock, the multiple World Cup champion, is developing his coaching and is tapping into Robbie Deans, the Wild Knights coach and former Crusaders and Wallabies boss.
The champion lock has retired but could write a book on lineout play.
Savvy Reds assistant coach Zane Hilton has a catch up to delve into a few of those chapters.
It’s captain’s run day under a new skipper Ryan Smith.
The Reds are at it for an hour. It’s all about rehearsal of plays and being aware of the threats the pacy, counter-attacking Japanese will pose.
Back in the team room, it’s eyes up to watch the All Blacks v Japan Test in Tokyo.
Some players devour watching rugby, potential opponents, game styles and the play of their peers as part of their own development process.
Others, surprisingly, do not.
Day Four: Game Day. Sunday, October 27
There’s no such thing as “only a trial” because by that very description you are always bidding for more.
Winger Matt Brice was playing for the Noosa Dolphins just two years ago. The hill at the Dolphins’ leafy home ground is a world away from the grandstands at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium, a 2019 Rugby World Cup venue.
Brice charges down the first clearing kick of the game. The Reds go on attack and Mason Gordon scores.
Brice is over for his own try just minutes later. Later in the first half, he chases a Reds high kick and catches it clean.
It’s a strong start from a Reds Academy player who played mostly reserve grade this season for University of Queensland.
The Reds run in nine tries but are always reminded how impatience is the enemy when a dropped ball can be run back 70m by a Wild Knights counter attack.
Team manager Thomas Barker should have needed a computer but pen-and-paper and experience allow him to manage 14 second half replacements expertly.
The entire tour party of 29 get a taste of the action in game one.
You are continually surprised by the Japanese and how into their rugby they are.
Recent Wallaby hooker Josh Nasser isn’t yet a poster boy in St Lucia in Brisbane yet he is in Kumagaya. Four Japanese fans in the stadium drape an image of him from the grandstand as their favourite player.
“Funny. I did a double-take. I saw supporters holding up a Reds flag and player photo and wondered who it was,” Nasser said with a laugh.
It turned out to be him. He happily obliged with an autograph post-match.
There were other cool moments post-match.
Centre Frankie Goldsbrough played strongly for the full 80 minutes, a fine effort from the 18-year-old who set up the Brice try.
His proud mum Simone made the trip from Brisbane and had a front-row seat.
Post-game, Goldsbrough and teenage centre partner Dre Pakeho also caught up with Ryan Schultz, their former Churchie school coach in Japan on rugby business.
All return to a good-spirited dressing room but it is a trial. There’s no team song or first cap presentations. Those lucky enough will earn it for the main event against the Wild Knights on Monday, November 4 when the Saitama-Queensland Shield is up for grabs.
There’s a chance for a team dinner at a Japanese barbecue all-you-can-eat restaurant. "All you can eat" is a red rag for a rugby team.
Great banter.
Karaoke? Did we hear the word karaoke for a stop on the way home.
Brice ends his night happily singing Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. He’s not sure he’s done it justice but his first game day on tour has gone just about as well as he could have dreamed
Next: Reds Tour Diary Part 2
