England coach Eddie Jones has warned the typhoon could have a significant disruption on the World Cup however, says he has contingency plans in place.
Typhoon Faxai moved shore over the Pacific towards eastern Japan on Saturday, threatening to make landfall near Tokyo the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
England are due to depart for Japan on Sunday along with the season typhoon – packing winds up to 180kph – will be expected to reach regions of the Kanto region between late Sunday and early Monday.
Tournament organisers have planned for the possibility of having to relocate groups out of their foundations or even to move matches to unique places.
The stadiums for the first two matches of England, from the usa at Kobe and Tonga at Sapporo, have roofs and Jones claims the team will train indoors on synthetic turf.
“It’s likely to influence the World Cup, there’s no doubt about it,” Jones said after his side’s 37-0 win over Italy in England’s final warm-up match in Newcastle.
“You’ve just got to ride with it, be adaptable and figure out how you can handle the situation.
“Once the typhoon comes, you just can’t go outdoors. It is basically a lock-down. Between being violent to quite mild, it may vary.
“The issue is that can’t go outdoors but we’ve got thoughts of what we do whether a typhoon stopped us training outside. We’ll instruct on artificial turf inside.”
Jones is preparing to get a noticeable shift in conditions, after playing four warm-up games on tender pitches.
Jones, with a Japanese-American mom and is married a girl he met while teaching at Sydney, to Hiroko Jones, is familiar with the possible perils, having lived for periods in Japan.
Before being appointed in 2012 as head coach of the national team before the 2015 Rugby World 26, he coached club clubs in Japan.
“South Africa played with Japan [on Friday] and it had been really hot and very humid,” he said. “There was lots of lost ball, it had been rather fatty, and that could increase the quantity of kicking.”
Read more here: http://socceradvantage.com/?p=24844