Thank you, everyone for coming. Konnichiwa. Firstly, can I start saying, it’s a real honor and the huge responsibility also to be named first head coach of Sunwolves. Japan has a long rugby history, 125 years, and we saw this year rugby world cup 2015, a fantastic year for Japan. 2019 World Cup, I believe that for me part of more responsibility as a coach is to better grow us towards 2019 and something I’m exciting about we, on the 27th of February, we kick off in Tokyo for first match in Super Rugby, the hottest competition in the world. My motivation for accepting the role for the Sunwolves, goes a long way back, all the way back to 1996, I was a member of the Crusaders and everyone knows the Crusaders. Crusaders have won 7 titles. However, what a lot of people don’t know is in the first year, Crusaders were dead last. The reason I wanted to mention Crusaders in 1996, was because while we struggled and we were last, we built a rattle around in a foundation in the first year, which was going to be the thing that actually made us as the team the greatest Super Rugby team in the world at that state, so for me in the HITO-Communications Sunwolves in 2016 season, it’s about us building a foundation that we could be proud of and that we can launch into a long Super Rugby history. Like any good rugby team, a lot of people have to work very hard and I know a lot of people including the people here up on stage and others have worked hard to get HITO-Communications Sunwolves to way we are now. I want to acknowledge those people, I want to acknowledge universities, the Top League, I want to acknowledge the sponsors, the fans, and understand that without them without you, we would not better do this. So, thank you.

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