{"id":35867,"date":"2025-09-22T01:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T01:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/35867\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T01:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T01:56:07","slug":"rugby-new-zealand-raised-japan-playmaker-recalls-miracle-2015-world-cup-upset-over-springboks-on-10-year-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/35867\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby: New Zealand-raised Japan playmaker recalls \u2018miracle\u2019 2015 World Cup upset over Springboks on 10-year anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe were just spectators by then. We were just riding the emotions with the crowd,\u201d the now 38-year-old told Newstalk ZB\u2019s Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.<\/p>\n

\"JapanJapan celebrate scoring their second try through Ayumu Goromaru in the 2015 Rugby World Cup match against South Africa. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember the crowd being really green [wearing Springboks jerseys] at the start of the game, in the warm-up and things, but as the game wore on, I don\u2019t know, it just started to turn red [wearing Brave Blossoms jerseys]. It was almost like the Springbok[s] fans were cheering a good game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seven minutes was a bit of a rollercoaster as such … it was a pretty crazy finish to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awarded a scrum penalty 5m out from the Springboks line as the fulltime hooter sounded, Christchurch-born Japan captain Michael Leitch was faced with the biggest decision of his rugby career.<\/p>\n

They were trailing 32-29. A successful penalty kick from near the left-hand sideline would result in a draw with the then No 3-ranked rugby nation in the world.<\/p>\n

But with a Springboks player in the sin bin, Leitch opted for another scrum in a bid to complete possibly the biggest upset rugby has ever seen.<\/p>\n

The next four minutes were history in the making as Japan spread the ball to the right-hand touchline through multiple phases. They snapped it back left into the hands of reserve loose forward Amanaki Mafi, who fended off one defender and shovelled it off to Napier-born replacement wing Karne Hesketh.<\/p>\n

\"KarneKarne Hesketh scores the game-winning try for Japan against South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Hesketh, who left Hawke\u2019s Bay to play in Japan six years earlier, sprinted for the left-hand corner and dove over in the 84th minute as the stadium erupted.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It was] like a miracle happened,\u201d Ono said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of people come up to me [saying] they knew where they were, who they were with and what they were doing at the time that it happened \u2013 because they were so shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ono said he and Hesketh were in Dunedin years after the historic win when a university student grabbed Hesketh in a bar and said, \u201cyou put me through university because I had money on you to score a try\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just little stories like that sort of pop up every now and then, which is pretty cool,\u201d Ono said.<\/p>\n

He praised then (and now) Japan head coach Eddie Jones, who spent the six months leading up to the World Cup building cohesion and trust amongst the playing and coaching groups.<\/p>\n

\"KoseiKosei Ono, raised in Christchurch, made 34 appearances for the Japanese national rugby side. Photo \/ Photosport <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just knew what our strengths were and didn\u2019t go too far away from that and that was playing with a lot of speed and moving the ball which seemed to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the mammoth upset, Japan were unable to make it out of pool play as South Africa and Scotland \u2013 who alongside Japan had three wins each \u2013 advanced to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been pretty cool to get to the next stage, which the next group were able to do in 2019 … We did what we could do and put ourselves in a position to get through [but] we just didn\u2019t have enough points in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Springboks, meanwhile, were knocked out in the semifinal stage, losing 20-18 to the All Blacks, who went on to win the 2015 World Cup at Twickenham against Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were just spectators by then. We were just riding the emotions with the crowd,\u201d the now 38-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9055,33323,33322,4624,10542,5269,305,1759,33321,33325,117,111,139,69,90,1523,33320,13491,29541,6327,33324,213,8137,1361,8496,377,33057,33319],"class_list":["post-35867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-9055","tag-10year","tag-33322","tag-anniversary","tag-cup","tag-game","tag-have","tag-japan","tag-miracle","tag-myself","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-over","tag-playmaker","tag-probably","tag-recalls","tag-rugby","tag-spare","tag-sports","tag-springboks","tag-that","tag-upset","tag-world","tag-wouldnt","tag-zealandraised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}