Mie PEARLS Rugby – Head Coach Janna Vaughan and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe – “Everyone’s now wanting to genuinely come here to have an experience”

As we head into the finals weekend which sees the challengers Mie PEARLS try and dethrone Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix on 2 February, we spoke at length with Mie PEARLS Head Coach Janna Vaughan and marquee signing for the season, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, about the season, why playing in Japan is so special, and what it will take to win the title in Tokyo.

There’s a whole long list of New Zealand Black Ferns who have played in Japan but the Japanese National Women’s Rugby Championship is only in its 11th season.

(Video link to the interview at the end of the article).

The Mie PEARLS Head Coach sits next to her cousin as we delve into her journey to Japan. Janna Vaughan played for New Zealand Black Ferns 7s but after missing out on squad selection for Rugby World Cup 2016 for the 15s side, she made the best of the opportunity and took a chance on playing in Japan from 2017-2020.

“I was going back and forth from here to New Zealand Rugby. I came here on the back of a bit of disappointing news with the World Cup, but it’s actually opened up a door, not just for myself, but for people like Portia and all the other Kiwis to come into this amazing club and this beautiful country, even back

I basically got my shoulder tapped by one of the selectors in New Zealand to say, “Hey, there’s an opportunity here – the club was looking for a centre at the time, and I was available and I had nothing to lose.”

Vaughan took the opportunity but added now “I didn’t want to come to Japan specifically, it was just an opportunity that came up at that time. Since then there’s been huge growth and huge exposure of the female game in Japan. And I think everyone’s now wanting to genuinely come here to have an experience.”

The Pearls cut through their division with relative ease and won all of their matches before they had the break over Christmas and New Year and took on Yokohama TKM side in the semifinals which they won. The result has set this finale against a team they lost to in the 2024 final 40-24.

In the semifinal, the iconic silhouette of Portia Woodman-Wicklife was again cutting up defences and had several bustling runs which led to team tries. For a Championship which has already seen so much international talent over the years from Kenya, South Africa, Spain, the USA, and so many more – the Black Ferns list alone is staggering. Most recently was Sarah Hirini – the double Olympic gold medalist who played with Mie Pearls in their 2023 Taiyo Seimei Women’s Sevens Series. But is there a player with more accolades than Portia? The news in late 2024 that she was heading to Japan was big (joined by her partner Renee who joined the club as an Assistant Coach, and their daughter).

“Leading into the Tokyo Olympics, we had camps here in Japan, we had tournaments here in all these amazing places. Right from our very first tournament, I loved Japan, the people, the Kai (loosely the community or social gatherings), the food, and the culture. I think there are a lot of similarities between the Japanese culture and their belief system and how we would live as Maori in New Zealand. So I think that’s why I gravitated to Japan. 

Heading into the Paris Olympics in 2024, I already came to terms that I was going to retire, and so with that, I started having conversations with my manager. I was like, ‘I’ve always wanted to go to Japan.’ So many Black Ferns, so many New Zealand players have played in Japan and had amazing things to say about the country and the rugby and just being here. So that was on the top of my list once I announced my retirement from New Zealand Sevens.

“I was so lucky, as we had my cousin here. So we started that conversation, and right from then was just an opportunity, not just for myself, but also for my wife and my daughter. I really wanted them to experience the love that Japan has for their people and everything about Japan. So it was an opportunity we just couldn’t, not take. Hearing Janna speak Japanese, Maori and English all in one sentence, was inspiring. So we knew we’re in the right place because of the people.” said Woodman-Wickliffe.

Cultural Similarities Between Japan and Maori – Manaakitanga – Mie PEARLS Portia Woodman-Wickliffe & Janna Vaughan.

Photo Credit – Mie PEARLS -Portia Woodman-Wickliffe

The cultural similarities between Japan and New Zealand are something we have heard about before. Portia has loved the environment and how her daughter has been embraced into the culture despite some challenges.

“Nine times out of 10, you gotta have someone that can speak the language. And fortunately enough, my Fano here, my cousin – actually speaks both English and Japanese and Maori, so it makes it a lot easier. It also made me realise how hard it is for Japanese players when they come to New Zealand. Not everyone speaks Japanese, and how isolating it can be. 

The girls, the ones who speak Japanese, and even the ones who don’t speak Japanese, they’re really, really supportive, and they just kind of hang around you, and they support you in such amazing ways. I think in terms of Japanese culture, and Maori culture, they’re all about what we call Manaakitanga, and supporting the person, helping them feel comfortable in their space, and making them feel like they can be themselves. 

I think those are the similarities that draw a lot of Maori people to Japanese culture. They have a lot, and this is my limited experience of Japanese culture. What I’ve noticed is that they have a lot of love for people, and they love to support them. So I’ve loved it here, and so does my wife and even my daughter.

Our daughter’s 12 and It’s been hard for her because she’s the only 12-year-old here. She’s having lots of adult conversations, as much as people try to come down to her level, she’s having adult conversations around adults, but they just love her. The girls who can’t speak Japanese are really, really amazing. She either gets chocolates, toys or anything when she comes to training. So that’s the Manaakitanga, or the support that the Japanese culture has. 

Janna has been listening intently and nodded along and when asked if she agreed with Portia’s assessment, she agreed.

“She’s been able to pick up on these key things in a limited amount of time here. The community has value in Japan, so it’s not about me as a single person, it’s about us as a collective. And that’s one of the biggest parts of Japanese culture. We are not one, we’re a collective of people, and so we act in ways that uphold the group, as opposed to putting myself in front and trying to get ahead for myself.

It’s more about what is best for the collective, and that’s what you do, and it’s called ‘Atarimae’ so just basically having common sense or doing what’s right for the collective, which aligns with Te Ao Māori (which in Maori is a respect for nature and a holistic understanding of the interconnectedness between humans and the environment)” explained Vaughan.

It’s a fascinating conversation and analogy and we asked how this has also perhaps shaped her approach to coaching in a team environment like rugby.

“For my coaching, obviously, I was a player here for three years. And so in my first year coming back, the club wasn’t in the best position in terms of the way that they were playing, the way that they were interacting together. I had a few friends that were still in the playing group, which was a little bit hard to adjust to at the start, but once I drew the line, they knew that, like at rugby, this is Coach Janna, but after rugby, this is, this is friend Janna, then that that became a lot easier.

Once we kind of got through a few bumps at the start, we were able to develop a really amazing culture. And the likes of Sarah Hirini and Shakira Baker (both Black Ferns) were all key in coming over and they loved the environment that we’ve been able to establish.”

Japanese Women’s Rugby – “You’re seeing growth because of the investment,” Says Vaughan

Photo Credit – Mie PEARLS Rugby

We asked the pair about the perception that some outside of Japan have that all of these [layers are fully professional but there is a hybrid system in place.

Janna explained, “For many of the Japanese players, each club is associated with sponsors. Those sponsors employ the players. Some clubs have more time off than others. So our club, our players, work until around one or two in the afternoon and then they’re released to do rugby stuff.

For the Japanese system, this actually works well in terms of job security for them. They’re not on a professional contract but they’ve got sustainability in their workplace, and they can balance that with rugby. But it does get hard for them at times, their days are quite long. We start early in the morning at the gym. They then go to work,  and after we kick straight into our meetings and into training. 

If we compare it to New Zealand, probably the system is actually a lot better in terms of sustainability. For the players that come in from overseas, they’re lucky to be fully professional or fully contracted. With that comes performance pressure, performance reviews and it’s not sustainable. Once they’re in, they need to be performing. If you’re not, it’s kind of cut-throat and you’re gone.

It can be difficult because the Japanese players get attached to these foreign players. But they’re here, and then they’re gone, they come in and out – it’s just so dynamic. Our girls are really good at adapting to change, which is not normally a Japanese thing. They hate change. But we’ve kind of been able to just explain that change is inevitable when people are going to come and go.

Janna discussed the changes over the years she has seen.

“There’s there has been such a saturation of foreign players into the market and foreign coaches into the Japanese market, and the investment from Japan, not necessarily just the Japanese Union, but the companies within Japan, this is where I think they’ve got it right, as they’re investing in the game at a club level. You’re seeing growth because of the investment.

I think in New Zealand, it’s kind of the other way around and I feel we’re not really investing a lot, and so therefore there’s not a lot of growth. But the growth that we’re seeing now has been over a period of time and more money has been invested by more companies, which means more players coming, more foreign coaches coming, which then gives the knowledge base for the Japanese players to grow.”

In terms of development pathways, she also elaborated on how Mie PEARLS works with local schools and universities to create opportunities.

“We are attached to a school here and we have our Junior PEARLS. Some of them will go to university and play for teams there. Others will come straight into our program. We’ve had two players that have come into our program this season, and then we recruit from the university. So it’s the same as the men but on a smaller scale. We look at the universities and that’s where we do our recruiting from. So there are pathways.”

The club (and they are not the only one, even the Japan Rugby Football Union have partnerships with New Zealand and Australian rugby unions and franchises) creates exchanges and opportunities to play overseas for Japanese players. (Since we spoke three players from Japan including a Mie PEARLS player were announced to head to the Australian Super W).

“We obviously have a partnership at the moment with the Chiefs, but in our preseason, we actually had a game with the Western Force which then opened up a door. One of our players has now been contracted with them for this upcoming season. Our Sakura Fifteen members have made themselves unavailable for Super Apiki in NZ and Super W in Australia – but if they were available for those opportunities, they definitely would be there.

Clubs are reaching out to Japanese clubs, especially around our tight five who are quite mobile, and they’ve got good size, which is hard to find in New Zealand and Australia. So this has definitely opened up the doors for the Japanese players to go to those environments. 

Portia chimed in on what she felt were good attributes of the players in Japan. “Japanese players throughout the country, their work ethic is amazing, they’re fit, and they’re fast. Some of the girls in our squad have definitely dusted me up on the field, so the contact is brutal. They have no fear, and that’s what kind of comes across in the game and at training. They’re fearless in their contact, they’re fit, they’re fast, and the IQ is really, really on.”

She added, “If you look at the Global Youth Sevens in New Zealand, Japan has been in the top of that competition for the last couple of years, they don’t get there by pure mistake. They’re there because they deserve it, and they’re amazing players. So that development is definitely coming through in their senior players.

Photo Credit: Global Youth Sevens / JRFU – U18 Girls were champions in 2024

There are definitely a few of the younger girls that aren’t quite yet in the Sakura full team, but I’d love to see them in Super Rugby Apiki because of their skill set and their abilities, the work rate that they have. I would love for them to come through just to boost their confidence, and then to see that they actually do compare to some of the best players in the world in New Zealand. The skill set, the knowledge, and the work rate, are all beyond anything I’ve ever seen. They look like butterflies, but on the field they are brutal. So they’re really strong, really skilful.”

How Has The 2024-2025 Season Been for Mie PEARLS

Mie PEARLS Head Coach Janna Vaughan started by saying that the jump from the pool stage matches to the semifinal was a big one. “In those early games, we just made sure that we stayed disciplined and we kept our standards high for ourselves. We got some pretty good scores in our round-robin games, I think we got our biggest score of all time for the club – 159-nil. But even then we were not perfect, and I would look at our errors but we were happy with the pool stages overall.”

Both teams had a weekend break after the semifinal, so a long time to prepare for the final.

Janna Vaughan said “If we turn up on the day with belief and the ability to execute, then we’ll run away with the final but I think where we kind of fell short last year was a little bit of belief, lacking a little bit of experience. We didn’t have our captain, (Seina Saito was with the Chiefs Manawa in Super Rugby Aupiki) which was a huge blow in terms of game control, the ability just to calm the girls down. But we’ve got her this year and obviously, we’ve got Portia and her power, her speed and her experience as well.”

From a player’s perspective, Portia explained, “Getting into the country, I knew I was going to start right from the get-go. It was about coming in with an open mind and being really conscious of how they do things – like I’m not the type of person that’s going to come in and say we must do it my way and that sort of stuff. That’s definitely not me. So the first couple of weeks was definitely feeling my way through the group and listening to the playmakers, and the leaders, and watching them and how they do it. 

Photo Credit – Mie PEARLS – After the semifinal beating TKM Yokohama in January 2025

The cool thing is, they’ve been very supportive. They wanted me to get straight into some play-making roles, and that’s not me, but they’re really supportive and that has been amazing. The hard part is obviously the language barrier and just small communication that you want to say on-field or just want to have these little moments. It was hard at the start, but as we progressed throughout the division and throughout the Kansai Division, I was able to pick up on small words and different words that I loved being able to pick up. 

Going through each game throughout the Kansai tournament was really cool, because Janna and the coaches were able to create a playbook that was really supportive of the girl’s skill sets and abilities, and it was progressing throughout the year or throughout the tournament. By the time we got to that last game against in the pool, I felt like our girls had really built some confidence, and some belief, they knew their roles, they knew their strengths. So that game was really, really amazing. 

She agreed that the break before the semifinal was tough. “It was hard coming back from a holiday into that pressure moment training. So I think we did well. And I think, like Janna said, if we can have the belief in our own strengths and our own abilities, skill sets and knowledge we can take on anyone. We have some amazing players that are in the Sakura fifteens team, and some young development players – these players have some amazing knowledge, and as long as they believe that they are good enough and they’re meant to be there, then they can produce some amazing rugby.

What More Can Women’s Rugby Do to Grow?

Photo Credit – Mie PEARLS Rugby

Janna Vaughan said “For me, it’s probably just investment. I think growth will come through investment and people just generally want to support the game, and they’ve got their here in Japan, so we’d like to see that in more places – New Zealand would be nice.”

For Portia, she said, “They’ve got a lot to learn. I think they take it for granted that with New Zealand Rugby, they think they are all good rugby players but it’s not always going to be the case, and you can see it already with the countries who are supporting their women’s players – that growth is happening. 

Back home, there’s a bit of a gap between high school and for Sevens, there’s no real clear development pathway for that, so I’d love to see that cleared up, and then also the development from high school through to the next women’s grade. Like, there’s quite a big gap there.”

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe outlines what she would like to see change in creating pathways in NZ, “In the past, we’ve had Under 18s head to the Youth Olympics so I’d love to see U18s Women’s Black Ferns teams happening more and that development pathway. If you’re 22 years old even, you kind of miss out on school grades and that’s where we miss a lot of players, and they come to Japan, and we don’t see them for a good couple of years. So definitely, just the development and investment to create that pathway needs to be a bit clearer.”

Portia confirmed she will head back to New Zealand straight after the final in Japan and head into the Blues camp to play Super Rugby Apiki – but beyond that…..

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe said; “I am a little unsure, but I am trying to pick up a few different opportunities. But the cool part is, there are so many like you mentioned. There’s the new USA Women’s competition (Women’s Elite Rugby) or maybe coming back to Japan – like there are so many different opportunities that we never had 10 years ago. So the world’s my oyster and I gotta figure out what I want”.

You can watch the full video interview here on our NEW YouTube page.

The Mie Pearls face Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix in the 11th National Women’s Rugby Championship final on Sunday, February 2, 2025, at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo (live stream will be available via JAPAN RUGBY TV

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