SEIJI HIRAO - (1963-2016) - RICHMOND FC 1985-86:

Seiji Hirao, who played for Richmond in the 1985-86 season, was arguably Japan’s finest and certainly most famous rugby player. Called ‘Mr Rugby’ by the Japan Times, he recently tragically passed away at the age of 53 after a battle with cancer. He won 35 caps for Japan, playing in 3 Rugby World Cups – 1987, 1991 (as captain) and 1995 and went on to coach them at the 1999 tournament.

For once however, the bare statistics don’t even begin to do the man justice. It’s perhaps difficult today to image how, in an age before the internet, fax and mobile phone, Hirao can have been at the time of his arrival in London, aged 22, almost completely unknown here, and at the same time already a David Beckham like figure in Japan.

Rugby’s popularity in Japan was at that time quite immense – live TV coverage of all major games, the Olympic stadium full for finals, and extensive national newspaper coverage. Hirao first burst onto the scene there as the captain and star of an obscure state school from Kyoto, Fushimi High School, which sensationally beat all the leading private schools to win the high profile national schools tournament. He then went on to lead Doshisha University to three university championship wins, and take his place in the Japanese national side from the age of 19 onwards.

Amidst massive media speculation about where he would continue his career (the Japanese club system was then, as today, dominated by corporate sides and there was a quasi-draft system as in US collegiate sport) he caused something of a stir by announcing he was taking a sabbatical year in London and would make up his mind after that. As someone who enjoyed movie star good looks – he was compared on arrival by some ladies here to a young Omar Sharif – he had legions of schoolgirl fans in Japan who were distraught at this decision.

And yet, at that time he was a totally unknown quantity outside of Japan. Imagine the discussion at summer training in 1985 between the occasionally dry club captain Martin Slagter and his perennially underachieving ex-Kobe Steel player, yours truly:

‘There’s a young player coming over from Japan – a really good fly half/centre’

‘What do you mean – in the same sense that you’re a really good fly half/centre?’

‘No – trust me, this kid’s the real deal’

Fortunately for what was left of my reputation at the club at that time, Hirao soon showed, as I knew he would, that he had real class: pace, great lines of running and all the other attributes, but in addition a poise and ability to read the game that until recently I had never seen in another Japanese player. Starting in the opening game on the left wing, he ended up as I remember playing every position in the back line except scrum half for the 1st XV that season, and won many friends in the club. His English improved markedly and he enjoyed London life, and being out of the Japanese media spotlight (for the most part) enormously. He always spoke fondly of his time with Richmond – and in particular that he had learned the importance of the social side of the game!

My efforts to persuade Seiji to join my old team on his return to Japan were in the end successful - Kobe Steel were at that time a strong but continuously underperforming side on the big stage. Under Hirao ‘The Steelers’ won 7 consecutive national club championship titles, to seal his reputation as both a great player and on-field leader. Following his spell as national coach, he returned as General Manager of Kobe Steel, who won 3 further national championships under his guidance. Such achievements both in the ‘amateur’ and then early professional era were a very big financial deal in corporate Japan.

Another sign of the level of fame Hirao achieved in Japan was that in recent years a blockbuster award-winning TV series ‘School Wars’ (think ‘Grange Hill’ with a massive rugby theme running through it) was a semi-biographical story of his life at Fushimi High School. Hard to imagine, I know, but true: Japan remains in some senses another rugby world, even to this day.

Hirao was much in demand as speaker on the corporate circuit in Japan – in particular on the interface of business and sport –and had spoken a lot in recent years about the continuous underperformance of the Japanese national side, despite the strength of the big corporate sides which to this day still dominate the Top League there. This was something which troubled him – in perhaps an echo of some of the issues facing top professional club leagues and national sides in Europe now, he felt that traditionally players had a strong tendency to feel more allegiance to their clubs than the national side and the clubs for their part were over possessive of their players. No one was more pleased than Hirao when Eddie Jones, demanding and receiving powers which no other Japanese national coach had ever previously had in terms of player access and resources, was able to turn this situation around and deliver their sensational performance at Rugby World Cup 2015.

With that success – including a 25 million live TV audience for the Japan vs Samoa game at the World Cup, the largest one nation live rugby TV audience ever (and Rugby World Cup 2019 being in Japan) - likely to usher in another boom time for rugby there comparable to the 80s and 90s, and with many of the stars of the ‘Brave Blossoms’ deservedly being ranked globally as players, it’s not easy to put Hirao’s achievements, in usually poor Japanese teams, into context. Better judges than myself however have stated unequivocally that Seiji Hirao could have rightly taken his place in a World XV at almost any time of his playing career.

Seiji was very prominent indeed on behalf of the JRFU in their bid for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which failed by one vote, and repeated the exercise again when they were awarded the 2019 tournament. He maintained his role with Kobe Steel and position on the Advisory Committee for the 2019 Rugby World Cup up to the time of his sad demise.

I am sure everyone at Richmond FC will join me in expressing our condolences to Seiji’s family, friends, former teammates and colleagues. The club had all too brief a view of his extraordinary talents but can be proud to have such a distinguished former player in the record book.

Reg Clark.