As Scotland’s longest-serving captain, Greig Laidlaw has met a considerable variety of challenges in his rugby career. But his role in helping develop Japanese rugby may be one of his sternest yet.
Last month he was appointed head coach of the Urayasu D-Rocks, formerly NTT, at the age of 38.
He will be the youngest chief in Japan’s top division, pitching himself against a World Cup-winning combination in Steve Hansen and Ian Foster – reforming their partnership at Toyota Verblitz – and three other vastly experienced New Zealanders in Robbie Deans (who has already won four titles in Japan with Saitama Wild Knights), Dave Rennie (Kobe Steelers) and Todd Blackadder (who guided Brave Lupus Tokyo to the 2024 title). There is also former Bulls chief Frans Ludeke, Super Rugby’s most experienced coach, in charge of Kubota Spears.
“Yeah, it’s a challenge,” says Laidlaw, a quiet master of understatement, chatting back home in the rural Scottish Borders where the cases are packed for the family’s return to the land of the rising sun, wife Rachel and three sons aged two to 10 preparing with dad for the next stage of the rugby journey.
“But obviously I’m excited – we all are. I didn’t expect to be a head coach this early after finishing as a player, but the way things have unfolded, we had a very positive season last season, got promoted back up to the top league and the general manager and a few other people in the organisation I think saw some of the impact I was able to have and felt I could bring something as head coach.”
It is instructive to understand how Laidlaw perceives his role. He speaks less about himself, his insight and his journey, and more about the expectation he feels to assimilate into Japanese rugby culture and develop young players from the Far East into Test rugby warriors.
But to those who know the proud Borderer, it will come as no surprise.
Like his famous uncle Roy Laidlaw, Greig only made his international debut in his mid-20s. While Roy earned 47 caps for Scotland and four for the Lions, forming Scotland’s greatest half-back pairing with John Rutherford after making a Test debut aged 26, Greig went on to win 76 caps for Scotland, having patiently bided his time behind Mike Blair at Edinburgh before seizing his chance and making the national team at 25.
We didn’t go to Japan to spend a few months there playing rugby and then retreat back to Scotland for the rest of the year. I think you’re cheating yourself doing that.
He was always a player who knew his own mind, however. Laidlaw captained Edinburgh in the Celtic League and to a Heineken Cup semi-final, and skippered Scotland A as an international novice.
Just a few caps into his Test career, when Dan Parks retired abruptly and Scotland had a surfeit of scrum-halves but no great leader at 10, Laidlaw stepped into the breach at stand-off in 2012 before becoming a Scotland fixture at nine and one of world rugby’s most reliable goal-kickers.
Laidlaw led Scotland in 39 Tests – more than any other captain – including coming within seconds, and a refereeing mistake, of a World Cup semi-final in 2015. He toured with the British and Irish Lions to New Zealand in 2017 and played for the Barbarians in 2018, before retiring from Test rugby after the 2019 World Cup with a haul of 714 points, second only to Chris Paterson (809) on Scotland’s record points scorers list and only behind Mike Blair as Scotland’s most-capped scrum-half – having started his Test career four years later than both.
He challenged himself by leaving Edinburgh when first choice for club and country to play in the English Premiership with Gloucester, and at 31 moved to the Top 14 with Clermont Auvergne as the team was becoming a European force. He finished his playing career in Japan with NTT Shining Arcs, subsequently re-named Urayasu D-Rocks, helping them to promotion back to Japan’s top league. At every club he is spoken of fondly – a leader, a popular team-mate – and loved by the fans for his down-to-earth, honest approach on and off the park.
Yet he believes the game owes him nothing, and he owes it so much. Even now he still has a desire to prove himself. Hence the swift agreement to take on a head coach role just a year after hanging up his boots.
Daunted? Laidlaw?
“Listen, the game and life is about challenges, isn’t it?” he smiles. “I’ve really enjoyed my four years in Japan, and so have my family. We didn’t go to spend a few months there playing rugby and then retreat back to Scotland for the rest of the year. I think you’re cheating yourself doing that. My wife Rachel and I felt we had to immerse ourselves in Japanese culture to get the most out of it, and so we spend virtually the whole year there, with a holiday or two to see family.
I feel strongly about this club. They gave me and my family a wonderful opportunity at the end of my career, and there’s something, in terms of the work ethic of the Japanese people and the players, that means something to me.
“My kids are very settled in school – they speak better Japanese than their mum and dad, which helps – and it’s been a great life experience for us all. My rugby has also benefited because I get on well with people here, and I think they respect the effort we’ve made.
“It’s like everything else, you know, opportunity presents itself and it’s up to you whether you take it. But now, I feel strongly about this club. They gave me and my family a wonderful opportunity at the end of my career, and there’s something, in terms of the work ethic of the Japanese people and the players, that means something to me.
“It’s unbelievable, really, whether it’s the players, coaches, backroom staff or others who support the company or club, that work ethic is something I think we could learn a lot from. It’s hard to quantify, but it’s the humility, the pride in their work, not letting people down, and the way they welcome people into their culture and want to learn.
“That makes me passionate about Japanese rugby, and confident that as a rugby nation they will keep improving. So now I guess it’s time to put what I’ve learned to the test and see if I can help them out and repay some of that faith they showed in me.”
Faith and loyalty are an intrinsic part of the man from Jedburgh. As a natural leader he aimed for and demanded high standards. He knew winning in a Scotland team wasn’t always achievable, but in his childhood witnessed a Scottish Grand Slam and a last Five Nations title. He also had Uncle Roy, and family friend Gary Armstrong, in his ear, who both won a Grand Slam and played for the Lions. That helped him harbour a belief in what was possible, even if you come from a town of less than 4,000 people. To know his dad David is to know that Laidlaws appear to be built with steel backbones.
It was a key reason head coaches refused to leave him out even if he had an off day and a crowd of young scrum-halves were snapping at his heels. Vern Cotter, Gregor Townsend, Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell are often spoken about as the central characters who lifted Scotland to a new level of performance and belief, but within squads from 2011-2019, Laidlaw is the player many speak of as the catalyst.
I’ve been lucky to have a bit of experience as a captain. I don’t know why coaches picked me to be honest. I guess I was pretty desperate, you know, maybe that was part of it. I just liked winning and I didn’t mind telling people if I didn’t think they were living up to standards.
Now, nearly 6,000 miles from home, he has won new friends and admirers. The Japanese are shrewd and for more than two decades have imported the best of world rugby traits to build their game. The Japanese league is famous for its alluring contracts, but it has also become a high-quality competition with more than 20 players from the 2023 World Cup knockout stages joining more established stars in Japanese strips come December. They include Springboks Faf de Klerk, Jesse Kriel, Damien de Allende, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Cheslin Kolbe, and All Blacks Sam Cane, Beauden Barrett, Dane Coles and Aaron Smith. At the D-Rocks, Laidlaw works with Wallabies Israel Folau and Samu Kerevi and Springboks back-rower Jasper Wiese.
“I’m not underestimating the size of what lies ahead,” Laidlaw shrugs. “Look, I’m going to make mistakes as a new, young head coach, I know that.
“It’s always a funny time when you come out of playing, I’m not going to lie to you. And there’s days you think ‘what am I doing?’ Playing games of rugby is all I’ve known for a large part of my life, but I’m enjoying coaching. I loved being on the field last year and really connecting with the players and pushing them to become the best versions of themselves.
“I like leading people and taking responsibility. I’ve been lucky to have a bit of experience as a captain. I don’t know why coaches picked me to be honest. I guess I was pretty desperate, you know, maybe that was part of it. I just liked winning and I didn’t mind telling people if I didn’t think they were living up to standards. I never always got that right, but certainly my heart was in the right place.
“Coaching is a different challenge, but you’re still leading a group. You look around at people like Andy Farrell and what he’s done with Ireland – the accountability that he demands of people in his squads is impressive. I’ve got a pretty clear vision of how I want to coach the game and my priority will be to create a clarity about what we want in the new season.
“I’ll be the youngest coach by a fair distance, so I’ll need help from my other coaches. We’ll be a youthful coaching group, but we can also use that to our advantage. The key is to stabilise the club back in the top league, and then see where we can go from there.”
There’s a clear sort of blueprint in Japan, a unique identity they’ve been developing. It’s pretty clear how the Japanese national team want to play, which I think is a good thing. It’s up to me to fit into that
So what style of rugby can we expect from the player nicknamed the ‘Little General’ by Scottish supporters for the way he marshalled bigger men around him?
“Obviously, I have ideas drawn from my experience, but this is Japan and I’ve been given this role because the company believe I can help Japanese players develop.
“There’s a clear sort of blueprint in Japan, a unique identity they’ve been developing. It’s pretty clear how the Japanese national team want to play, which I think is a good thing. It’s up to me to fit into that, develop that and move our team and our players forward, so that the Japanese-qualified players have opportunities like I had to play Test rugby.”
Blooding youngsters has been a big focus for Eddie Jones since his return as coach of the Japan national side, as he starts to prepare for the next World Cup in Australia in 2027.
That process will continue over the coming weeks as the Brave Blossoms, currently 14th in the world rankings, return to action in the Pacific Nations Cup, a competition also featuring Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada and the USA. The six countries will play in two pools from 23 August to 7 September – Japan beginning their campaign against Canada in Vancouver on Sunday – before the finals series is staged in Japan from 14 September.
Many of those youngsters being pitched into Test rugby have come through Japan’s university system, where organised rugby was first introduced to the country in the 1860s by British and American academics.
Rugby still doesn’t make the island’s top 10 sports, but in a country of 125 million, it doesn’t need to. It boasts more than 3,600 rugby clubs (by comparison, Scotland has around 275 clubs, and England about 1,900), and around 120,000 players. But Japan has over 800 universities which, last year, housed around 500,000 students, an area of enormous potential for the game.
The real focus of Japanese rugby is on just bringing in enough people, not too many – there are strict limits on how many we can have – to bring through the students and help them develop
“One thing I didn’t appreciate before coming to Japan was how big the university game is and how many rugby players they have,” says Laidlaw. “It’s absolutely massive. All the main talents come through the big universities and which university you go to, and where you go in your career after that, is a big thing in Japanese families and culture, so there is a lot of competition if you want a rugby career.”
There is also the sticky element of corporate companies having first say on players – who they employ and can shift into other areas of the company.
“All the clubs are owned by big corporations – the Panasonics, Canons, Mitsubishis, NTT etc, which has its own challenges,” Laidlaw explains. “But they’ve all got money, which is important – let’s not beat around the bush – and that’s how they can afford big salaries for foreigners. But the real focus of Japanese rugby is on just bringing in enough people, not too many – there are strict limits on how many we can have – to bring through the students and help them develop, and while there are complications sometimes with player release, you can see their potential in the World Cups.
“The foreigners have great talents, of course. Working with Israel [Folau] is incredible – just amazing skills – but they almost cancel each other out, and it’s the quality of the Japanese players that can make the difference. We’ve got exciting Japanese players, great ball players and young kids coming out of uni that I’m hoping I can help shape and develop.”
Laidlaw’s own cult hero status in Japan helps. It started after the Brave Blossoms beat South Africa in the upset of the 2015 World Cup, when tens of millions across the islands tuned into rugby for the next game, having previously paid it scant attention. That next game was just four days later against Scotland who, steered by captain Laidlaw, beat Japan 45-10 with five second-half tries after a delicately balanced first period. Laidlaw’s 20 points with the boot helped him become a star of Japanese TV.
When Scotland toured Japan in 2016 and returned to Yokohama for the World Cup in 2019, he was besieged by fans and television crews all wanting to meet ‘Mr Greig’.
I’ve got to show what I’m about. The squad need a clear direction and I’ve got to provide that.
“Yeah, that’s a bit crazy,” he says, shaking his head. “Right place at the right time I guess. I still seem to have a following in Japan, which is just mental, but listen, it’s been great because the people are so nice and I’ve met some great people in Japan. It’s pretty funny really, but great for the club, and those World Cups were great for Japanese rugby.
“It’s exciting being a part of that but it also gives you a sense of the expectations, on players and coaches. That’s the new bit for me, but there’s no point being nervous – if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. Hopefully, I’m well rounded enough to take advice from the right people, listen and learn, and push through the tough times. But as I said before, I’ve got to show what I’m about. The squad need a clear direction and I’ve got to provide that.
“I can’t wait to get the family back settled in Japan and start that next chapter… and it will be nice to be back where trains run on time too!”
Comments
Join free and tell us what you really think!
Sign up for free