£14-a-day amateurs face England’s £25,000 Test stars

By Nick Purewal

Jamie Joseph has revealed Japan’s “amateurs” receive less than £14 (€16) a day on tour and will face England on Saturday hunting nothing but glory.

Japan’s home-based players are given 2,000 Yen per day for their northern hemisphere autumn tour — while England’s stars earn £25,000 (€28,594) per cap.

Head coach Joseph insisted the Brave Blossoms have “different motivators” from many tier-one nations, ahead of Saturday’s Test clash at Twickenham.

“Our home-based players are amateurs, they are employees of companies, and receive 2,000 Yen a day,” said Joseph.

“To be here and play a team like England is a great opportunity for a footy team and a footy player.

“Our professional players, the foreign-based players that we have in our team, don’t get paid for playing for Japan.

“They do it because they want to play a high level of rugby that they don’t get in Japan. If you put that all together we have got different motivators and we just want to get out and leave our footprint behind.” Current England boss Eddie Jones coached Japan to their greatest-ever result, the 34-32 win over South Africa in the 2015 World Cup.

That stunning Brighton victory immediately went down as the biggest shock in World Cup history, and now Japan are gearing up to host the 2019 tournament.

Ex-All Blacks lock Joseph insisted Jones will always be respected in Japan, despite the England boss warning the Brave Blossoms to “pray” before arriving at Twickenham.

“There will be a lot of respect for him,” said Joseph, of Jones.

“He has also coached club rugby over there for many years and has got a lot of relationships and we have got a lot of those players here.

“He was an established coach in Japan for many years. When I was playing there he was coaching; he is a great coach.

“I have had the pleasure of observing Eddie and have got a lot of respect for his abilities. He has helped me and I have learned a lot off him.”

Jones warned Japan to head to the temple to find the inspiration to face up to an England side he predicted will be in ruthless mood this weekend.

Joseph laughed off Jones’ rhetoric, however, explaining: “When we’ve got the ball and guys are really excited about playing, we’ve got a different style of play; we’re not as big as others, but we’re quick.

“In tough conditions it’s tough to get our game going, so we’re hoping and praying for a bit of weather. I’m not sure I’m going to the temple though.”