League v Union

Dateline: July 14th, 2013

In the interests of getting the quasi-Japanese National Rugby League team some more game time, the Tokyo Gaijin RFC agreed to a half Rugby Union half Rugby League game against the Tokyo 13 warriors at the immmaculate Tatsumi Field.

With many of the Gaijin having never played league it was at times comical and at others an eyesore as they struggled with the rules of Rugby League – and let's face it, the rules of League are quite simple……compared to Rugby Union.

The first half was the Laegue half and as expected they got out to a big lead. The problems for the Gaijin were not just the rules though as they forgot how to tackle and the league boys made easy yards. It wasn't 'til they were up about 6 tries that the Gaijin managed to score when Joffa Harris charged through a gap from a quick penalty tap from new recruit Eamonn Murphy and went over the line untouched.

Richard O'Shea would add the only other try of the first half for the Gaijin when he crashed over from close range next to the posts.

Altogether the Warriors scored about 10 tries to the gaijin's 2.

The second half was almost the first in reverse with the Tokyo 13 Warriors struggling with the Union rules. They did have enough fill-ins and players that regularly play union though to score three tries, with the Gaijin scoring 7 or 8.

With no scores kept for the game and in the spirit of sport the match was declared a DRAW and promises were made to repeat the fixture next year.

The Gaijin then went on their annual boat cruise around Tokyo Bay, of which this writer has very little recollection. I do know that as it was an All-you-can-drink cruise there was a lot of amber fluid imbibed but luckily we all made it back to the dock without falling in the murky waters of Tokyo Bay.

Team used: Lachlan Ainley (Australia), Gaz Dalrymple (Scotland), Tomohiro Setoguchi (Japan), Tsunaki 'Don' Tanaka (Japan), Richard O'Shea (c) (Wales), Natsu Kunitomo (Japan), Aurelien Antolinez (France), Liam Ramshaw (England), Shinichiro Nakayama (vc) (Japan), Joffa Harris (Australia), Andrei Croiter (England), Eamonn Murphy (Ireland), Arthur Levula (Fiji), Mosese Rarasea (Fiji), Ikuo Fukuda (Japan), Tatsuma Muto (Japan), Hitoshi Chihara (Japan), Cato Bauer (USA), Shuzo Takazawa (Japan), Yamagen (Japan)