Monday 9 September 2019 09:57, UK
England coach Eddie Jones has warned the typhoon sweeping across Asia could have a major disruption on the World Cup in Japan, but says he has contingency plans in place to deal with it.
Typhoon Faxai moved northwest over the Pacific towards eastern Japan on Saturday, threatening to make landfall near Tokyo as early as Sunday night, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
England are due to leave for Japan on Sunday and the season's 15th typhoon - packing winds of up to 180kph - is expected to reach coastal areas of the Kanto region between late Sunday and early Monday.
Tournament organisers have planned for the possibility of having to relocate teams from their bases or even to move matches to different venues.
The stadiums for England's first two games, against Tonga in Sapporo and the United States in Kobe, have roofs and Jones says the team will train indoors on artificial turf if necessary.
"It's going to affect the World Cup, there's no doubt about it," Jones said after his side's 37-0 win over Italy in England's final warm-up match in Newcastle.
"You've just got to ride with it, be adaptable and work out how you can cope with the situation.
"Once the typhoon comes, you just can't go outside. It's basically a lock-down. It can vary between being very violent to quite mild.
"The issue is you can't go outside but we've got ideas of what we do if a typhoon stopped us training outdoors. We'll train on artificial turf indoors."
After playing four warm-up matches on dry pitches, Jones is preparing for a marked change in conditions.
Jones, who has a Japanese-American mother and is married to Hiroko Jones, a Japanese woman he met while teaching in Sydney, is familiar with the potential perils, having lived for long periods in Japan.
He twice coached club teams in Japan before being appointed in 2012 as head coach of the national team ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
"South Africa played Japan [on Friday] and it was very hot and very humid," he said. "There was a lot of dropped ball, it was quite greasy, and that could increase the amount of kicking."
