VIDEO: Japan delivered one of the cruelest blows in his career, but then Jesse Kriel found renewal by embracing Japan’s culture and lifestyle, where he has played for the past seven years.
The Springboks’ loss against Japan in the 2015 World Cup was that moment for the seasoned Springbok, but rather than dwelling on the disappointment, he moved to the country and realised how much that victory meant to the Japanese.
Since then, he has embraced the culture, learned to speak the language, and has grown as a person and a player.
His first stint came in 2015 when he joined the Red Hurricanes. The following season, he joined the Canon Eagles, and he has been there ever since.
Remembering the moment he realised the game was lost, Kriel told Rugby365 on Wednesday it truly was one of the most disappointing days of his life.
“But that game was a turning point in Japanese rugby, almost petrol on the fire.
“I went on to play a three-month stint at Red Hurricanes afterwards, and the craze for rugby just got massive,” he explained.
“It really grew the game, as bad as the result was and as disappointing as that was – it was probably one of the most disappointing days in my career.
“The older and more mature you get, the more you understand what it has done for rugby. In that sense, it’s been good,” he said, adding that reflection after the fact with a realisation of the magnitude of an event.
*Article continues below…
When he moved to Japan, he was struck by the immense interest the moment had sparked.
“People in Japan are obsessed with rugby, and it’s really grown.
“It was a tough day, but on the other side, you move and live in Japan and you see.
“They made statues of the guy [that scored the winning try] and a video, ‘The Miracle of Brighton’, so it was really a miracle for them and an underdog story that kind of took off.”
Over the years, Kriel has made many friends in the Land of the Rising Sun, and he expects to see quite a few familiar faces among the Brave Blossoms when the two teams face each other at Wembley on Saturday.
“I think there will be two players from my club that might be playing, the winger Takuya Uchida, he is very good.
“He captained the Sevens team at the Olympics and he is probably the closest player I have seen to Cheslin Kolbe and then the prop Ryosuke Iwaihara, he is very handy and a good player.
“I really hope that they are part of the team, it would be good to come up against some current team mates.
“And then I’ve got a lot of friends that are playing at other clubs that I’ve been playing years with, I have been going on seven years in Japan now.
“You make some good friends and you have some tough battles with other guys out there.”
When we asked him how fluent his Japanese is, the answer came in Japanese. He was modest about his grasp of the language, but it is rumoured that the farm boy from KwaZulu-Natal is almost fluent in the Asian tongue.
*Article continues below…
“I can speak enough to get by. I’ve been there a while.
“I’ve got an unbelievable Japanese teacher who is also passionate about rugby and probably one of the biggest supporters of our club.
“It’s been nice to be able to learn and speak a bit of Japanese just to communicate better with my teammates and get to know them on a different level.”
According to Kriel, his knowledge of Japanese might help the Springboks in the game, even if he picks up only one minute detail of a move here or there.
“It might help in the game.
“I think maybe some of the terms they use might strike me when you hear something here or there.
“It does sometimes flick a light in your head that they could be doing something. In this game, the margins are so small, anything can help.
“So we will see if it gives us any joy on the field. Our ears are always open on the field, have to be,” he said smiling.