England coach Eddie Jones has warned that the typhoon may have a significant disruption in the World Cup in Japan, however, says he’s contingency plans in place to take care of it.
Typhoon Faxai moved northwest across the Pacific towards eastern Japan on Saturday, threatening to make landfall near Tokyo as early as Sunday night, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
England are due to depart on Sunday Japan and also the season’s 15th typhoon – packing winds up to 180kph – is anticipated to reach areas of the Kanto area between Sunday and early Monday.
Tournament organisers have planned for the possibility of needing to relocate teams from their foundations or games to different places.
The stadiums from the USA in Kobe and Tonga at Sapporo, for the first two games of England, have roofs and Jones claims that the group will train indoors on turf.
“It is going to impact the World Cup, there’s no doubt about it,” Jones said following his side’s 37-0 win over Italy at England’s final warm-up match in Newcastle.
“You have just got to ride with it, be elastic and figure out how you can manage the situation.
“After the typhoon comes, you just can not go outdoors. It’s basically a lock-down. It may vary between being violent to very mild.
“The issue is that can’t go outside but we have got ideas of what we do whether a typhoon stopped us coaching outdoors. We are going to train on artificial turf inside.”
After playing with four warm-up matches on pitches that are tender, Jones is preparing for a marked shift in conditions.
Jones, with a Japanese-American mother and is married a woman he met while teaching at Sydney, to Hiroko Jones, is knowledgeable about the perils, with lived for periods in Japan.
Before being appointed as head coach of the national team ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup in 2012, he coached club groups in Japan.
“South Africa played Japan [on Friday] and it was quite hot and very humid,” he said. “There was plenty of dropped ball, it had been rather fatty, which could raise the quantity of hanging”
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