What can Tokyo 2020 learn from the Rugby World Cup?

In many ways, the Rugby World Cup was a mini dress rehearsal for Japan, as it gears up to host an even bigger sporting event next year: the Tokyo Olympics.

While there are many differences -- far fewer countries participated in the Rugby World Cup but it was spread out over 12 host cities -- there are some lessons Tokyo 2020 can learn from the tournament.

- Contingency planning may not be enough -

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Rugby World Cup organisers spent hundreds of hours gaming out every possible scenario for what would happen if a typhoon, earthquake or volcano struck a venue in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active countries that is also battered by hurricanes each year.

In the end, even the worst-case scenario planning was insufficient as Hagibis, one of the largest and most powerful typhoons in recent years, reared up from the Pacific and took direct aim at Tokyo.

Changing venues was impossible as the storm covered practically the entire Japanese ...