Chiba Barbarians Too good

Dateline: March 29th, 2015

The Tokyo Gaijin RFC arranged a "Friendly" game against Chiba Barbarians RFC as a warm-up for the upcoming Tokyo Cup. The Chiba Barbarians are the best amatuer side in Chiba prefecture so the match was considered an ideal warm-up. Unfortunately the Gaijin could only muster 15 players but they were able to put together a decent team even though some players were out of position.

The Gaijin started well with a couple of early tries, but they were evenly matched by Chiba Barbarians who got 2 of their own tries in the first half. The Chiba team were quicker to the breakdown and when they passed the ball wide over a couple of phases they were able to get around Tokyo Gaijin. The Gaijin tries were well worked and created by the forwards crashing the ball up and the backs supporting.

In the second half the Gaijin struggled to get decent possession. They were turned over at ruck time and, as people were playing out of position, the passes didn't always go to hand. The Barbarians started to kick the ball more, and they ran in 3 more tries in the second half to Tokyo Gaijin's 1 try. In the second half Chiba were able to bring on substitutes, whereas the Gaijin team were noticeably tiring and losing concentration. Post match the referee commended the Gaijin for playing the full game with no substitutes. Overall the game was a good warm up for the upcoming Tokyo Cup.

Score: Chiba Barbarians 29 (5 tries, 2/5 conversions) TGRFC 17 (3 tries, 1/3 conversions)

Team

1. Abraham Knight (England)

2. Liam Ramshaw (England)

3. Tsunaki Tanaka (Japan)

4. Glen Amos (UK)

5. Gorka Gerediaga (Basque)

6. Inigo Carro (England)

7. Paul Bertier (France)

8. Takashi Tanakawa (Japan)

9. Eamonn Murphy (Ireland)

10. Max Manson (NZ)

11. Ryo Takahashi (Japan)

12. Hitoshi Chihara (Japan)

13. Toshinori Minamidate (Japan)

14. Anthony Monette (USA)

15. Akira Yamagen (Japan)