NANTES - Japan have called on their inner Samurai spirit to take on Argentina in a mouth-watering winner-takes-all climax to Pool D of the Rugby World Cup in Nantes on Sunday.
England are confirmed as pool winners, meaning a straight shoot-out between the Brave Blossoms and Los Pumas for second place and a spot in the quarter-finals, both teams having lost to the English.
"This is going to be one of the biggest games since Jamie's (Joseph) been coaching the team. If we lose, it's the end of us, so that means we're going into the death zone," said Japan team director Yuichiro Fuji.
Fuji said players had been embracing the way of the warrior in discussing game plans at team presentations in the place of coaches.
"It was (prop Keita) Inagaki this week, and he talked about how it’s going to be the 'Samurai Time', where once we pull the sword out, it's going to be do or die, and how we have to drop our katana (sword) on them to defeat them," Fuji said.
Argentina coach Michael Cheika, who led the Wallabies to the 2015 final and 2019 quarters, was typically less melodramatic.
"It's a normal week, important of course. We are ready," the Australian deadpanned.
"We are clear about our preparation, our way of playing and also the particular things we have to prepare for the Japanese team."
Cheika, who made 11 changes from the team that routed Chile 59-5 to revert to the starting XV that lost 27-10 to England, added: "They are more than capable of challenging us in every area. We have to challenge them in every area as well.
"Japan are a very competitive team in every area, with an attack and defence system that is very different from other teams.
"Japan were in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup and we were not. We are very hungry to be in that position. We know about the bad taste of not being there and we really want to be there. We will do our best to be ready."
Japan coach Joseph said there had been a three-year build-up to Sunday's match, with the Brave Blossoms targetting a second successive quarter-final spot after first advancing to the knock-out phase on home soil in 2019.
"We've just got to go play 80 minutes of rugby and make sure we play that rugby the best we can and play our style of rugby," said Joseph.
"It's like a quarter-final or semi-final for us already because the losing team goes home."
Japan's skills coach Riki Flutey, the New Zealand-born England and British and Irish Lion centre, called Argentina "an awesome team".
"They're very physical, have a very good defence - one of the best in the world. They've got dangers all over the field and we know they've got lots of threats."
lp/bsp
By Luke Phillips