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Japanese artist paints Sunwolves as fat rugby-playing penguins

Sunwolves vs car (Yuko Inaba)

These are the best works of rugby art the world has ever seen.

The HITO-Com Sunwolves had a stopover in Auckland last week on their way to play the Crusaders in Christchurch. Despite the stormy weather, they decided to head out for some sightseeing.

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But as their bus cruised along scenic Tamaki Drive, it was forced to make an unscheduled stop – a car had broken down in the middle of the road.

The Sunwolves players disembarked and surrounded the stricken vehicle like a swarm of ants, safely and efficiently shunting it to the side of the road. A video of the team averting a potentially nasty traffic snarl-up was shared on Twitter, and from there quickly went viral, picked up by news outlets around the world.

Now the feel-good moment has been immortalised in a watercolour illustration, depicting the Sunwolves players as a team of fat penguins.

The masterpiece is the work of a Japanese artist called Yuko Inaba. A Google Translation of Inaba’s website, Nadegata Penguin, explains the inspiration behind the extremely niche body of work. “It would be fun if a fat penguin was doing rugby,” the artist writes.

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Indeed, this is not the first time a Sunwolves player has been depicted as a fat penguin. In recent weeks Inaba has shared drawings of flyhalf Yuu Tamura and prop Keita Inagaki on Twitter, and there is a drawing of lock Hitoshi Ono holding a bottle of sake on Instagram.

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https://twitter.com/inabayuko/status/852413851869921280

Even some international stars have received the Nadegata Penguin treatment. (“Nadegata means sloping shoulders,” Inaba explains on Instagram.) Scotland’s Six Nations hero Greig Laidlaw“the best scrum half in the world” – is a particular favourite. The All Blacks‘ haka has also inspired an artwork, in which the All Blacks are drawn as rockhopper penguins.

The Sunwolves shared Inaba’s illustration on Twitter this morning. It is now taking on a viral life of its own.

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Nickers 30 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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