Phil Greening – Sevens Rugby Is Important For Youth Development In Japan

Phil Greening took on the Japan Sevens Men’s Head Coach role in Japan in late 2024 after more than a decade working at USA Rugby, and the former England 7s and 15s international likes to tell it as it is. He runs through his love of Asia, why he took the role in Japan, and the challenges he has faced thus far – most importantly the foundations and pathways connecting all levels of rugby in Japan and getting buy-in from the JRLO clubs into the benefits of Sevens are reaping rewards.

We spoke with Phil while he is located at the Japan Base high-performance training facility in Fukuoka, Japan as the side prepares for the Vancouver SVNS as part of an invitational tournament and then South Africa for the opening two legs of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025.

“It’s great here in Fukuoka – I am by the water, I ride my bike to work, so I’m more than happy,” said the Englishman. Greening has been in some form of coaching capacity for two decades after his playing career was cut short by injury. As a player, he played sevens for England and competed at the Hong Kong Sevens in 2002-2003 to add to his 24 caps for the national 15s side. How did he pick up the coaching mantle?

“I got an injury in the Cup Final against Leicester for Wasps, and it took me a year to get back, and I had to make a decision. Coming from school and heading straight into rugby, I didn’t have much else and rugby has always been in my blood.

I went and worked for Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore after I met the CEO, Mike Reese, who’s an amazing rugby guy who said, “Look, if it doesn’t work out what, why don’t you come to work for us, and you could do both. I was very fortunate to have a boss like Mike who loved rugby and let me carry on my passion. I decided to go full-time into coaching and move back to England, after being offered a role by Mike Friday (who he worked alongside at USA Rugby for such a long time – both men departed after the Olympics in 2024).

He was starting the England sevens programme and asked me to just help out, so I started doing that, and I just fell in love with it. So when I had to make a decision, about finishing my playing career, it was almost a natural path.”

Those interim years in Singapore, before Greening took to the role and moved back to England were crucial he admits.

“I moved to Singapore straight after my injury and it was my best decision. Rugby has been amazing for me. The first thing I did was join Singapore Cricket Club and I’ve still got some great mates from there. I love the place and it became a home. And that’s why rugby is amazing. I went to Singapore on my own, and in a pretty dark place because I just finished my career, I was 29 but my club Waps were doing well, England was doing well, and everyone was carrying on. 

I had to go to the real world though, and Singapore was a lifeline if I’m honest. I met some great people and have some great friends till now. We did a lot of rugby and some community projects, like Operation Breakthrough in Hong Kong which I was involved with as well. There’s loads of rugby in Asia, and it was just brilliant, and it made me fall in love with Asia.”

After his Singapore stint, Phil Greening joined the England Sevens management team as Assistant Coach under Mike Friday until 2007. He took on the role of Scotland Rugby 7s head coach and programme manager for a year before reuniting with Mike Friday at USA Rugby until 2024. Over that period of time, Greening was also a coach at Samurai (now Shogun Rugby) and won the Middlesex International 7s in 2010, 2011, and 2012. 

Photo Credit – JRFU – Japan 7s players in training in Fukuoka

Rugby In Asia Is Massive – Phil Greening

“Asia is massive, and there is a massive rugby footprint, so it’s important. When I came back to Asia with the Japan Sevens, I fell in love again with Asia. The Asia Rugby Sevens Series is an important event, there’s nowhere else in the world that does it, and I think that’s why Asia has to keep hold of this one for the nations in Asia to keep playing, keep growing the sport. But it’s quite iconic. No one else has their own tournament like we do here in Asia. So I think that’s important with the way things are turning out and changes in the world today with rugby.”

The 2024 Asia Rugby Sevens Series was his first tournament with the Japan Men’s team, and he had scant time to prepare for the opening leg in Korea before the 16-team series moved to China and then finished in Bangkok. The top 8 Men’s and Women’s Asian sides compete, and Greening’s Japan men’s team were runners-up to Hong Kong China – with both earning qualification to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 and a potential pathway back to the top HSBC SVNS Series. The Japanese men last competed there in 2019.

Greening took over the role from fellow Englishman Simon Amor, who funnily enough went the other direction to take up the Head Coach role for the men at USA Rugby to replace Mike Friday.

“Mike and I built everything in America for 11 years. While I was there, I looked after the fifteens and sevens, so I also worked with John Mitchell, and I worked with Mike Friday, building the programs and it was a great time. We took the Sevens from relegation to almost winning the series one year and a few World Cups and should have done better in the Olympics – we grew the game.

When Mike decided to step away from coaching, I also wanted a change. I actually wanted to get back into fifteens coaching, if I’m honest because I missed it. I had a couple of opportunities but when Simon came over to the US for a camp he asked if I would be interested in the Japan role. I was really set on fifteens rugby as I missed these big games but he organised for me to speak to Kensuke Iwabuchi (JRFU Chairman) at the Paris Olympics.

The more he talked about it, the more he started convincing me that building something again, starting the pathways, and trying to link it to the fifteens with Eddie Jones (JRFU Men’s Head Coach) and of the growth needed in Japan, not just with rugby, but with S&C which is another field of mine that I like to think I specialise in……..

Photo Credit – JRFU – Eddie Jones Brave Blossoms Head Coach

I felt like that opportunity was quite interesting and moving back to Asia was a big reason. Ken is a brilliant guy and his vision for what Japan wants to do, and linking, or trying to link the pathways for Eddie.

I started researching more and I saw the universities and the schools and how big rugby is here – the young players are ridiculous. Can we connect the dots? That interested me. When I decided to accept and make the move, it reminded me of when I finished my career and I moved to Asia to get over it, and it sort of happened again funnily enough. So far Kenny has just been amazing with what he’s done for me and allowing me to try and build here.”

Developing Japanese Rugby Pathway Development

Although Phil’s main role is as the Men’s Sevens Head Coach and with ambitions to get the team back to the HSBC World SVNS Series – he is involved at several levels of building blocks and pathway development as he had mentioned.

“Just look at the talent they have in Japan, both men and women – I mean the women’s game is getting bigger and bigger and the girls have done really well on the SVNS this season. The more I see the women’s game here, the more I realise there’s a lot of talent in Japan.

The fifteens programmes have some good people and they’re starting to build for that Rugby World Cup for the men in Australia in 2027 – so 15s will just keep growing.

The biggest eye-opening thing for me is the Japan Rugby League One clubs and the universities – the universities are massive. But the transition of going to a JRLO club here in Japan – those young players don’t get much exposure or game time at all, sometimes for a couple of years, or even 2-3 years at least.

My vision is to try and get these young players into the Sevens programme and work with the League One clubs to help develop those players and then put them back into their League One clubs as better players. With us, they will have exposure at international tournaments and the tournaments in Asia, and they get game time, and they’ve had development with me. After that, they go back to their clubs and hopefully, then they’re linked on that pathway with Eddie for the Brave Blossoms and Japan gets a better, younger and quicker player.

At the moment, the JRLO is brilliant, and we have all these international players coming over but it does sort of stifle some of the young talent coming through in Japan. 

I’ll give you an example, one of the players we’ve got, he has been seven years at a JRLO club and hasn’t played a game yet – like, How is that possible? That’s the other side of the coin here in Japan, where players are very loyal. They got their jobs. It’s linked to the company, so they can’t move around like you would in the UK. So there’s that hurdle as well, which I didn’t know about until I got here if I’m honest.”

Japan Men 7s Fiji Coral Coast 7s 2025

Sevens Rugby Is Important 

In the leadup to speaking with Phil, there had been media attention on how the SVNS Series was struggling financially under World Rugby – the game is hugely significantly important, especially in Asia where many unions and federations rely on Sevens for funding and we asked Greening if he felt there need to be some changes?

“100% I’m totally with you. World Rugby has got to change its vision a little bit – that event in Perth was a really good example of having a good spectacular event and we can’t be diluting it any further than what we’ve done – otherwise, we will hurt the game.

So many unions depend on the Olympic funding, and so many that means Sevens rugby, so you can’t lose this product, because you’ll lose unions, and you’ll lose these small countries. It’s not just in Asia. I spoke to the Nigerian coach, Steve Lewis, and all their funding is based on whether they qualify for the Africa Sevens Series and if they are somewhere near that, then they’ll get more funding – that’s how it works, and that’s what they have to keep the sevens. 

You look at France – they have just done a deal with the Top 14 for all the young club players to be allowed to go play in the Sevens team, which is exactly what we’re trying to do in Japan, as France is seeing it as a pathway.

When I speak to coaches in the JRLO, especially some of these amazing coaches from New Zealand (like Steve Hansen and Ian Foster), they understand the sevens pathway because it’s worked in New Zealand, and the Aussies are doing it now. The French have eight players in their current Six Nations squad, and Ireland too has 5 players that are linked to their sevens programmes.  

It’s an important tool, and you have to fund it, but you still have to see what the value of the game is and how it can grow rugby. That Olympics in Paris just transformed rugby by a long way so it’s a juggling act but I think they’ll get it right, they will get it right, but we need to hold on to this for so many reasons, more than just the event being just a spectacle and what finances it brings in.”

Photo Credit – JRFU – Phil Greening – Japan Rugby 7s Mens Head Coach

Women’s Growth Is Key To All This

With the Women’s Rugby World Cup this year, we are likely to see several Sevens stars play in the tournament, much in the same way that the Olympics brought in some big 15s players.

Greening explained, “I think the women’s game needs that. They need that transition. Ireland’s now got 38 contracts for sevens and 15s so the players will bounce between the two. More women’s unions will do that, and I think more rugby will get that right because they’ll get the balance right.

They understand that women’s growth is key to all this, in both fifteens and sevens.  From the debates and the conversations we’ve had, I think sevens have to stay alive and become a pathway for these young players, both men and women.”

The Vision For Using Sevens To Develop Talent in Japan – Perceptions Are Changing

Greening told us, “Sevens is important for the youth to be developed in the men’s game here in Japan. We’re using as a pathway, and if the Challenger Series is not diluted, or the World Series isn’t diluted, or the Asian Sevens which this year they’ve dropped from three tournaments to two tournaments. 

(We have heard from several sources that the Asia Rugby Sevens Series will be two legs and not three, and include 12 teams each for men and women)

When I go to League One clubs and ask for young players – they ask what tournaments we are going to, and if we only have one – what’s the point the clubs will say? The player might as well train and hold a tackle bag and then that young player is getting stifled. That’s the balancing act that we have to try and get right in Japan. 

Here there needs to be a perception change. When I started, the JRLO coaches who I know personally, all said that Sevens was a joke and that the way they were playing was useless. There’s no development etc It was important that we played some good, exciting rugby that I hoped, would unleash some of the talents that we have. 

The big thing for me was to change the perception of Japan sevens internally, and then a byproduct of that would be being successful with the tournaments.”

His side finished second in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in 2024, and since then, full or development sides from Japan have competed at the Oceania 7s, and the Fiji Coral Coast 7s, and have many more tournaments lined up in the first half of 2025.

“I was over the moon, if I’m honest, to finish second in the Asian Series. Guys like Paul John from HKCR telling me, “Geez, Phil, you have got them playing well.” Simon Amor messaged me, saying “Oh, my God, they’re playing brilliantly.” Other coaches from League One telling me that the boys are playing brilliantly. That’s what we wanted to do. And that was a big, important message!

Malaysia & Japan Men – China Leg2 Asia Rugby Emirates Sevens Series 2024

I want to win all of it if I am honest. We should have won a couple of finals in the Asian Series, but the first thing was to change perceptions, and I hope we’ve done that. I’ve gone from having six players invited into camp because everyone’s turned me down – but now we have 40 players preparing for the upcoming tournaments. The League One clubs, universities, everyone’s letting their players join as they can see the benefits, and in my short time here, we have had four players now starting and going really well at their JRLO clubs.  

The coaches now want to keep them for the games and if I request them for Sevens, they tell me “No, mate. He’s playing really well for us,” Phil says laughing. “But maybe we can get those players back for the Asian Games and maybe the Olympics – that is a massive win for me, and that’s more important than winning tournaments.

He spoke of the success he and Mike Friday had with developing players in sevens who went on to big club and country success in England and the USA, and he says, “That’s what I want to bring back. I think we can do that here in Japan if we all buy into this pathway.”

Thanks to Phil Greening and the JRFU for making this interview possible.

We will publish a second part of the interview at a later date.

Rugby Sevens News 2025

• HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger 2025 Leg 1 Pools and Fixtures Confirmed.
• HSBC Vancouver SVNS 2025 Pools and Preview.
• 2025 Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens – What You Need To Know.
• Japan Men To Play 2025 HSBC SVNS Vancouver Invitational Sevens Tournament.