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Ohata: Asia’s rugby superstar

Daisuke Ohata seconds before touching down his record breaking try against Georgia

Ohata: The golden boy of Japanese and Asian rugby

Daisuke Ohata may not play for one of the superpowers of world rugby, but the Japanese winger’s name is now written into the sport’s history books after he broke the try-scoring record of Australian legend David Campese in May.

That Ohata would break the record was never in doubt – it was a question of when the prolific wing would surpass Campese’s benchmark of 64 tries in 101 Tests, which had stood for more than a decade and remains an Australian record.

Ohata had, after all, scored 62 tries in 54 Test matches since making his debut for Japan against Korea back in November 1996 – an occasion he will never forget having marked it with a hat-trick of tries at the 15th Asian Championship.

For the record though, Campese’s mark was surpassed on 14 May 2006 with another hat-trick, this one against Georgia at the Hanazono Stadium in Osaka which, fittingly, had been the city where Ohata was born a little under 31 years earlier.

However it so nearly did not happen as it was only deep into injury time that Ohata scored his record-breaking 65th Test try, a burst of his natural speed being enough to exploit a tiny gap in the Georgian defence.

The Kobe Kobelco Steelers wing’s achievement was marked by the Japanese Rugby Football Union, who presented him with YEN1million and a gold-striped version of their national jersey amid celebrations by his teammates.

Doha 2006 - Ohata: Asiaâ€™s rugby superstar