Japan being treated like the All Blacks by home fans after beating Ireland

Brave Blossoms' scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka has compared their new found support after defeating Ireland as being akin to “what the All Blacks are in New Zealand”.

The World Cup hosts, who beat Russia in the opening game, sent local enthusiasm for the tournament soaring when they stunned Ireland 19-12 in Shizuoka on Saturday to grab control of Pool A and put themselves in contention for their first quarter-final place.

“Fans gave us a guard of honour inside Tokyo Station and there are many people talking to us outside, too,” Tanaka said when asked about how the side were being treated after the win.

“It feels as if we’ve become what the All Blacks are in New Zealand.”

Fans on the street are not the only ones warming to the side and the tournament. World Rugby has highlighted the interest that stemmed from the Ireland match, with early indications that television viewership of the game may have set a record in Japan.

More than 25 million people watched the 2015 side’s match with Samoa after they had beaten the Springboks earlier in the tournament.

The governing body said the early signs were that the Ireland match had exceeded that.

“While the domestic broadcast audiences are not normally published until 10 days after the event, all signs indicate a largest-ever domestic audience for a rugby match,” the governing body said in a statement.

“The match (also) occupied the top five trends on twitter in Japan, while ... the largest-ever single-day Rugby World Cup fan zone attendance saw more than 120,000 fans enjoy the experience the length and breadth of the nation.”

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