When Japan beat South Africa in Brighton at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the tremor from the shock result was felt over 8,000 miles away in Beijing.
![At the helm: Ben Gollings, England Sevens' record points scorer and head coach of the Chinese men's and women's sevens sides.](/web/20170106213914im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/l/l/d/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtlkwy.png/1483486375884.jpg)
While Japan has a long history in rugby, it is a sport that until recently had little place in the Chinese consciousness. That, though, is set to change.
Even before Japan's victory, discussions were under way between World Rugby, the Chinese government and AliSports, the sporting arm of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, over investment in the country's rugby structure.
For World Rugby and AliSports, such negotiations offered scope for a dramatic expansion in a new market. For China, it provided a chance to beat their bitter rivals in years to come but, more importantly, the potential opportunity to excel at another world sport.
"Do I see the day when China play England at Twickenham? One day you would hope that will happen. It is a question of when really," says Brett Gosper, chief executive of World Rugby.
If the Chinese have their way then the 'when' will be sooner than anyone had initially dreamt. Throughout negotiations the Chinese government felt both World Rugby and AliSports were being too cautious.
So when it was announced in October that AliSports had agreed to invest $US100 million ($138.5 million) in Chinese rugby over the next 10 years, the programme was startling in its scale and speed.
"We sat down with the Chinese government department [the Multiball Games Administrative Centre of General Administration of Sport] to go through some of the targets and the ones we had fixed were not as ambitious as the ones they ended up fixing," says Gosper.
"We said to them we want a million players in the next 10 years. They said make it five. We will also have 30,000 coaches and 15,000 officials in China by 2020."
A key part of this plan is to make a play for huge events in an effort to inspire people to take up the sport. Negotiations are underway for the country to host rugby's first $US1 million ($1.67 million) match, as part of an end-of-year sevens tournament that could take place as early as this year. It is also hoped China will bid to host the Rugby World Cup as early as 2027.
"We are very much interested in bidding for the world's major rugby tournaments," says Weihong Cui, secretary general of the Chinese Rugby Football Union. "The Chinese government has been giving full support to developing sport in China, especially hosting major influential sport games. The AliSports investment will inject vigour into the development of rugby in China."
Do I see the day when China play England at Twickenham? One day you would hope that will happen. It is a question of when really
Brett Gosper, chief executive of World Rugby
"They think big," confirms Gosper. "In their minds they think two or three World Cups away is possible. We have said you have to be competitive as a nation and you have to have an interest in the volume to sell around two million tickets.
"It would be great for strategic reasons for them to host it, but it also has to be right for the commercial look and feel of the tournament.
"Then we are in the process of discussing a Masters Sevens tournament, which could be held as early as this year. It would be the top eight of the World Series finishers competing for the highest ever prize money we have seen in sevens - like the Barclays ATP Tournament in tennis.
"In order to be seen as a premier event it needs something specific, and prize money would seem to be a good way of doing that."
The prize money will come from AliSports, whose parent company turned over $US12 billion ($16.6 billion) last year. It is expected to put rugby front and centre of its TV and digital platforms as it takes advantage of the Chinese government's decision to relax state control of sports in late 2015, having already invested in FIFA's Club World Cup, the NFL and boxing.
There is confidence the interest is there, as evidenced by the fact 44 million people in China watched sevens at the Rio Olympics - double the number in the UK and second only to the United States worldwide.
The scope of the project has never been seen in rugby before, but the will of the Chinese government to make it happen means those involved are confident of success, with a professional sevens and XVs league to start almost from scratch, either at the end of this year or the start of next.
Some overseas players will be recruited, and outside help is expected on the coaching and administrative side, although China's unique culture means they will drive it themselves rather than rely on foreign influence.
"There is a 'save face' culture in China, and that is very important," says Ben Gollings, England Sevens' record points scorer and head coach of the Chinese men's and women's sevens sides for a year until this summer. "You cannot go there as a foreigner and say, 'I am everything and I underpin it all.' They won't work with you if you do that - you have to support them and give them ideas, and you get a lot more support back that way."
China has only 76,000 registered players, although that number is already 40 per cent higher than at the end of 2014. It is a huge jump to get to a million in five years, but Gollings believes it is possible.
"A million players playing rugby is really quite small when you consider the population size [1.736 billion]," he says.
"As soon as they get rugby into the universities and schools that will propel it forward. Rugby is growing in Asia, and the government have targeted it as a small-balls sport they can perform in, and when it comes to hosting events they aren't shy.
"For now it is very much sided towards the provinces. Most run a men's and women's team but not all.
"There is no question China has the athletes and they have an incredible infrastructure. We were a live-in team and trained at Olympic training facilities, and there are three or four of those in every province that are as good as any Premiership rugby club has."
Qualifying for the Olympics is also a key part of the plans, and the national side are expected to start cherry-picking athletes from other sports to boost their hopes of qualifying for Tokyo 2020 - hopes improved by the fact that Japan qualify automatically as hosts.
At present China's women's team - who won bronze at the 2014 Youth Olympics - are considered a better bet than the men, having narrowly missed out on Rio under Gollings's stewardship, although Cui says both men's and women's sides are 'expected' to qualify.
And as the sport enters a new era, one of expansion away from the core markets of the Six Nations and southern hemisphere giants, there is a feeling China's hugely ambitious plans could just work.
"The time is right," says Gollings. "They have the infrastructure and the mass of people to be able to do it. Japan are such big rivals and their success will propel the sport's growth. The key factor is to have people driving the right way to make it happen quicker. If they can pull it all together there is no reason it can't happen."
By the numbers: How China is playing the long game
1m
Number of registered players China hopes to have by 2022, up from 76,000 at present.
30,000
Number of coaches they hope to have by 2020.
44m
Number of people who watched the Olympic Sevens in China.
$100m
The amount that AliSports will pump into Chinese rugby.
2020
China expect both their men's and women's teams to qualify for the next Olympic Games.
2027
The year China could bid to host the World Cup
The Telegraph, London
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