Canada reaches out to help Japan recover after last match cancelled

Canadian rugby players have rolled up their sleeves to help typhoon-affected residents in Kamaishi on a day where Japan returned to some form of normality following an evening that had millions of people on edge.

Typhoon Hagibis was forecast to be destructive and certainly turned out to be. In one of the worst typhoons in Japan’s history, 19 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left without power.

Canada rugby players and staff help residents in Kamaishi following Typhoon Hagibis. Credit: Twitter

The events of the previous 48 hours saw games cancelled, Scotland threaten litigation and the integrity of rugby’s entire centrepiece tournament thrown into disarray but the most important thing was protecting lives.

Yet the Canadian team, who failed to win a game at the World Cup and had their final match against Namibia cancelled, made the effort before their trip home to clean mud off a road in Kamaishi that was hit hard by the typhoon. It was a fantastic act that was shared widely on social media.

"Our game was obviously cancelled today and we were really looking forward to it but I guess in times like this there are things more important than rugby," said Canada player Peter Nelson. "When we got here we saw people’s houses destroyed and water up the walls and we were trying to do our very small part to try and help them.

"They’re such a friendly nation and I think it’s only right we try and give back as much as we can even though it seems like a very small part."

Typhoon Hagibis did not compare to the 9.0 magnitude earthquake in 2011 that caused a tsunami in Kamaishi and killed 16,000, leaving the Japanese fishing town with months of cleaning up and re-building to do.

But it would have evoked memories of that terrible day eight years ago for residents.

Australian back-rower Scott Fardy stayed around to help the recovery effort, having played second division rugby for the Seawaves.

On the bullet train out of Tokyo on Sunday, the flooding was there for all to see on the lowlands, yet a beautiful sunny day was a strange juxtaposition to the carnage of the evening before.

Even before the typhoon’s full wrath was felt, at 6.22pm on Saturday, an earthquake, registering 5.7 in magnitude, jolted Japan's main island.

It was felt through areas of Tokyo, shaking hotel rooms and forcing some people to make a quick dash down to the ground floor of high-rise buildings.

Hours earlier, a tornado even ripped through Chiba and killed a man whose car was overturned in the city of Ichihara. All before the typhoon had properly kicked in.

Preparations took place a day earlier, however, as residents in the city stocked up on food, drinks and supplies. Finding a spare cup of dry noodles at convenience stores was near impossible as 7-Eleven shops, on most street corners in Japan, were gutted by anxious locals and tourists.

An aerial picture shows floods in Nagano. Credit: Jiji Press

As the storm's intensity increased, no one really knew what damage it would do. Once it hit, you certainly knew this was something else.

Brave onlookers who did not evacuate buildings popped their heads out to see rain and wind Japan has not seen for decades. Winds, up to 225km/h in some areas, howled like a whistle for hours on end.

Depending where you were reflected the level of trepidation. Tokyo was eerily quiet, with only a few audacious drivers making their way down deserted streets in a late bid to get to safer ground.

Police officers were spotted sprinting through the streets, helping wherever they could.

At the same time, hundreds of rugby fans put the natural disaster to the back on their mind and sipped lagers while watching Ireland smash Samoa.

It is remarkable to think World Cup organisers were able to schedule Sunday's match between Japan and Scotland less than 24 hours after a storm of such a size.

While Hagibis was a force of nature that tragically ended lives, don't think for a second Japan will let it overshadow a World Cup that it so desperately wants those here to remember for a long time.