Japan rugby coach John Kirwan has started sending his players to brutal sparring sessions with giants of the sumo world in a bid to toughen up his side.

The former New Zealand great, whose team emerged from last year's rugby World Cup with credit, watched from a safe distance as his players took a pounding from the roly-poly wrestlers.

"There's techniques you can use in the scrum," Kirwan told Japanese media. "The speed at the face-off can help with the hit in the scrum."

His players were not quite so enthusiastic about taking such a battering.

"It's a totally different ball game," winced Japan lock Hitoshi Ono, sporting the traditional buttock-bearing "mawashi" loin cloth worn by sumo wrestlers. "These boys are huge!"

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.