Exchanges with Former Kobe Steel Rugby Players
2025/4/24
Australian Ian Williams and Irishman Mark Egan each played for four years on the Kobe Steel rugby team, which won seven consecutive championships in the Japan Company Rugby Football Championship and the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship beginning in 1989.
Ian was fast and contributed to the team's third, fourth, fifth and sixth championships. In particular, Ian's 50-metre solo try in the final of the Company Championship in January 1991, when the team was aiming for its third championship, is still talked about as a legendary try. Mark was a powerful, giant forward who played a central role in the scrum and was a great player on the team when it won its fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh championships. The two played rugby together at Oxford University before their time at Kobe Steel, and are said to be very close.
As a rugby fan who used to watch them fervently on TV and sometimes at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know them separately in their home countries through work. Both of them are dignified and kind-hearted, and love Japan very much.
Ian, a lawyer who has worked on business and economic relations between Japan and Australia, was very helpful to me as the Australian Vice-Chairman of the Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee. Mark is also a director of the Japan Rugby Football Union based in Ireland, and serves as a liaison with World Rugby (headquartered in Ireland), and is directly involved in the development of Japanese rugby. As an aside, when MYAKU-MYAKU, the official character for Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai, came to Ireland recently, he kindly took on the important role of escorting it from Japan at our request.
I believe that I will continue to rely on these two gentlemen on many occasions in the future. I look forward to the day when I can meet them both together somewhere and discuss the wonders of sports diplomacy.
Ian was fast and contributed to the team's third, fourth, fifth and sixth championships. In particular, Ian's 50-metre solo try in the final of the Company Championship in January 1991, when the team was aiming for its third championship, is still talked about as a legendary try. Mark was a powerful, giant forward who played a central role in the scrum and was a great player on the team when it won its fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh championships. The two played rugby together at Oxford University before their time at Kobe Steel, and are said to be very close.
As a rugby fan who used to watch them fervently on TV and sometimes at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know them separately in their home countries through work. Both of them are dignified and kind-hearted, and love Japan very much.
Ian, a lawyer who has worked on business and economic relations between Japan and Australia, was very helpful to me as the Australian Vice-Chairman of the Australia Japan Business Co-operation Committee. Mark is also a director of the Japan Rugby Football Union based in Ireland, and serves as a liaison with World Rugby (headquartered in Ireland), and is directly involved in the development of Japanese rugby. As an aside, when MYAKU-MYAKU, the official character for Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai, came to Ireland recently, he kindly took on the important role of escorting it from Japan at our request.
I believe that I will continue to rely on these two gentlemen on many occasions in the future. I look forward to the day when I can meet them both together somewhere and discuss the wonders of sports diplomacy.