Sport

Pillow juxtaposition, souvenir condoms and a plumbingbased dig at previous host nations: by last Sunday evening, and with a month left before curtain-up, the Tokyo 2020 pre-Olympic stories were already writing themselves.

In the end, as ecstatic Japanese rugby fans celebrated their team’s first victory over Ireland on Saturday, it was left to a retired warrior from the losing side to offer a sense of perspective.

Japan’s rugby players have discovered they can, after all, teach the All Blacks something: how to execute a respectful post-match bow to adoring fans. Taking their cue from the Rugby World Cup hosts, New Zealand were the first visiting team to line up, face the crowd and lower their heads, after their 23-13 victory over South Africa in front of 64,000 fans in Yokohama last weekend.