Simon Amor Announced as New Head Coach of Japan Men’s Sevens Rugby

The Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) has announced that Englishman Simon Amor has been appointed as Head Coach of the Japan National Men’s Sevens rugby team. His first challenge will be the upcoming HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 which kicks off in Hong Kong on November 4, 2022.

Japan Men’s Sevens Rugby Head Coach – Simon Amor

Amor has been the Japan Sevens National Team Technical Director since December 2021 and the JRFU said in his role he “has brought tremendous value to both the Japan men’s and women’s Sevens squads, assisting the coaching teams and players during team training camps and overseas tours, and supporting the strategic and tactical development of both teams. He will now bring this focus squarely onto the men’s team as it prepares for the upcoming World Sevens Series and qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.”

The upcoming World Sevens Series is also a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics rugby sevens and World Rugby said during the recent RWC Sevens 2022 that the next season would be the final one in the current format. (We have heard all sorts of rumours about the potential venue and team changes but let’s see what is announced).

Simon Amor, Head Coach of the Japan Men’s Sevens Team said: “It’s a great honour to be appointed as Head Coach of the Japan Men’s Sevens team. Last season was very challenging for the team, dealing with the impact of the COVID restrictions, however, we were able to identify some great new talent and bring them into the national team setup.

This season will probably be the most competitive World Series ever, with Olympic qualification also on offer. This provides us with a great opportunity to improve at every tournament – through hard work, maintaining world-class standards and a desire to improve every day. By doing this, we will give ourselves the best opportunity to win the Asia Rugby Sevens Series and the Asia Olympic qualifier at the end of the season.”

Amor represented England in rugby sevens between 2001 to 2007, and in 2004 was awarded IRB Sevens Player of the Year.

As a coach, he was in charge of the Great Britain Men’s Sevens Team that won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and was briefly Eddie Jones’s attack coach for England (winning the 2020 Six Nations Championship and the Autumn Nations Cup). Amor had a short but pandemic-impacted stint at the HKRU before joining Japan.

No mention was made of current Japan Men’s 7s head coach, Koichi Umeda by the JRFU. 

Japan Sakura Sevens Rugby Women’s Team

At the recent RWC Sevens 2022, Sakura Women’s Sevens Head Coach Takashi Suzuki told Rugby Asia 247 that he was overall happy with the performance of the team.

Photo Credit – JRFU – Sakura Women’s Sevens Head Coach Takashi Suzuki

“The results showed where we are (finishing 9th overall with a top 8 finish the goal), which is not far away and we are close. But still, there is work to be done to crack the top 8, the teams we need to beat are at a higher level so we will see what we can do and what we control over the coming months.”

On the squad’s cohesion as a group, as they were one of the crowd favourites in Cape Town, he added” The girls are hard-working and always give 100% in training and on the field and that’s something we can be really proud of.

If they can learn to have more enjoyment out of it, the team will grow even further and also that goes with the on and off switch to be sharp in the matches. When we switch off, we need to be able to quickly concentrate again – so finding that balance and getting it right is important.” 

Editors’ Note – As Asia Rugby has not yet confirmed which Asian teams will participate in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series with the first leg taking place in Bangkok on the weekend of October 22, 2022, we assume the Japan Men will not be involved – however,  the Japan Women should be as they told us in Cape Town it was part of their plans before their first World Series event of the 2023 season kicks off at the Emirates Dubai Sevens from 2-3 December 2022.

Asian Sevens Rugby News and Interviews 2022

• Korea Men’s Rugby Aspirations- Head Coach Charlie Louw.
• Everything You Need To Know – 2022 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.
• Osea Kolinisau To Forge a Winning China Women’s Sevens Team.
• HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 Schedule Confirmed.