CHRIS HEWETT
GUEST COLUMNIST

As the first of this season’s Billionaires’ Row derbies between Bristol and Bath, two wealthy clubs separated by a 12-mile stretch of the A4, unfolded at Ashton Gate, the roar of the crowd was not the only noise in town. Over there in Tokyo, a 12-hour flight away, there was the deep rumble of rugby’s financial world shifting on its axis.
Japan is throwing money at the sport – the Land of the Rising Sums, you might call it – and if the Union game continues on its present course, Premiership boardroom power-lifters like Ste...