The Big Wet

Komaba ‘Friendly’

The Gaijin were missing two key players, Captain Alistair Nimmo at halfback, and Takayuki Kitajima at prop. They also had no legitimate backup props so Niall Conlon, who usually plays his rugby at center, bravely put his hand up to fill the void. Steve Bull was chosen to fill in at halfback, that way he didn`t have to catch the ball…..just pass it.

As mentioned before, the day was a shocker. The field was waterlogged and the rain was coming down in buckets and to add more misery, it was extremely cold. The Gaijin had no reserve backs to speak of but a very experienced trio of ‘big’ forwards on the bench in Murray Clarke, Wade Dahlgren and Sean O`Donoghue…..even if they were slightly unfit.

Komaba showed their class early and their intentions. Their game was based around the ‘pick and drive’ and was well suited to the conditions. The Gaijin failed to adapt until it was too late and were on the end of a losing score-line – 29 v 12.

At times the Gaijin back-line showed a complete lack of understanding or cohesion, which included too many passes going behind their intended targets. They repeatedly took the wrong option, wasting numerous attacking overlaps, or went the wrong way from the scrum-base, which saw possession squandered in midfield.

Komaba dominated territory, hassled the Gaijin, put the pressure on at the right moment and wore the Gaijin defenders down with their constant ‘pick and drives’ close to the ruck. Basically, they played the better game for the conditions. They were helped by the Gaijins` own inability to finish off moves and careless ball retention.

The final score of 29v12 perhaps even flattered the Gaijin a little as they never adapted to the terrible conditions. At halftime Komaba led only 10v5 mostly due to good defense from the Gaijin close to the ruck. The Gaijin try was scored by Steve Bull, after a couple of good bullocking runs by Rob Reinebach and Wade Dahgren had the Komaba defense in tatters. Despite the ball being fumbled again close to the tryline, good defense and strong mauling had led to the ball shooting out the back of a ruck over the try line and Bully was the first one to it.

In the second half the Komaba forward pack kept the ball in tight and wore down the defense. The Gaijin did manage to get over the white stripe in the second half but once again it came from a Komaba mistake. The Komaba back-line had dropped the ball due to in-your-face defense and the ball was toed through. Sean O`Donoghue, showing surprising pace, won the race to the ball.

Best for the Gaijin was Rob Reinebach, who made quite a few of his usual barging runs and was well supported by Wade Dahlgren when he came on the field. Seeing the two ‘monsters’ work in tandem was a sight to behold. Perhaps that was the problem as too often their good work came to nothing. Maybe too many people were watching them instead of playing their own game. Niall Conlon deserves a mention for the admirable job he did in his first attempt at prop. With a little more practice the position could become his, though I am sure he would not be happy to hear that. The relatively new line-out jumpers in Mike Parks and Dave Kelver made a big improvement on last game after lots of practice at training with Line-out Doctor Joe Fisher.

The Goat of the Match could have gone to a few players. Dave Huffman, close to being one of the biggest players on the field, was pushed back about ten metres by the opposition halfback, with his flankers joining in to belittle the big man. Embarrassing to watch but that`s what ‘Friendly’ games are for and Huffer will be trained in the ‘Art of Running Low’ at the next few training sessions. Steve Bull, who later admitted he was hungover, looked like a turnstile a few times and basically waved an opposition player through for one of their tries. (He probably thought his try was enough and he was going to sit back on his laurels). Andy Ballard failed to call a mark in his 22 after taking a kick and was monstered by the defense, spilled the ball, and gifted the opposition a try. But the eventual ‘Goat’ went to Jonathon Dean. Dean had had a tough day. It`s not easy playing fullback when the rain is pelting down, the ball is slippery and you are not getting much help from your wingers. At one stage in the game he was running back towards his tryline after just having fielded a kick and passed a beautiful pass back to his supporting player. Problem is his supporting player was running in the opposite direction and had already passed him so the pass ended up being about 2 metres forward.