TGRFC V Kawagoe

V Kawagoe

Dateline: January 27^th, 2019

The Tokyo Gaijin RFC won a closely fought ‘friendly’ match against Kawagoe Fighters with superior goal kicking being the only difference between the two sides. The annual friendly, now into its 8^th year, is always held at Kawagoe Stadium. Due to a tight schedule the fixture was played in two 30 minute halves.

The Gaijins’ superior first half was enough to see them squeeze out a win. They managed to score three in the first half through Tom McCullough in the 3^rd minute, Takashi Tanikawa from the back of a scrum in the 15^th minute and Daita Minami in the 23^rd minute. Daisuke Teraoka failed with the first conversion but converted the other two. Kawagoe failed to score any points in the first half making the halftime score 19 v 0. Kawagoe had a player yellow-carded in the 22^nd minute for slapping down the ball in defense.

Kawagoe turned the tables in the second half with the first three tries. In the 5^th minute of the half their reserve prop crashed over next to the posts. In the 17^th minute good support play saw them score under the posts and this was followed up four minutes later when their No.14 raced away to score from a scrum on halfway. The first two were converted but the third was unsuccessful leaving the scores locked up at 19 all.

The Gaijin regained the lead when their replacement halfback muthrough a hole in the defense and gave a behind-the-back pass to Guille Alonso who ran the final 20 metres to score. The successful conversion put them in front by a converted try at 26 v 19.

In the final minute of the game the Kawagoe halfback sold a big dummy and jinked through the defense from 15 metres out to score. Needing to convert to force a draw the Kawagoe kicker succumbed to the pressure and failed to add the extra two points. The Gaijin had snuck home by two points to win 26 v 24.

The games between the two teams are always close but the Gaijin continue their run of dominance over recent years. Thanks as always to Kawagoe RFC for putting on the fixture. See you for the 9^th clash in January 2020.

SCORE: TGRFC 26 (T. McCullough 1, T. Tanikawa 1, D. Minami 1, G. Alonso 1 ties; D. Teraoka 3/4 conversions) Kawagoe Fighters 24 (4 tries, 2/4 conversions)

TEAM:

1. Ryusei Saito (Japan)

2. Tommy Nasuno (Japan)

3. Tsunaki ‘Don’ Tanaka (Japan)

4. Gorka Gerediaga (Basque)

5. Masayoshi Takano (Japan)

6. Kouichi Morita (Japan)

7. Tom McCullough (England)

8. Takashi Tanikawa (Japan)

9. Louie Hamilton (Ireland)

10. Daisuke Teraoka (Japan)

11. Jermaine Bernard (England)

12. Apisai Bati Junior (Fiji)

13. Jamie Martin (England)

14. Taku Eguchi (South Africa)

15. Yohei Iwamizu (Japan)

Reserves:

16. Tomohiro Setoguchi (Japan)

17. Kosuke Yamamoto (Japan)

18. Natsuhiko Kunitomo (Japan)

19.Jared Scheifer (USA)

20. Sean Robinson (Ireland)

21. Apisai Bati (Fiji)

22. Kenjiro Ito (Japan)

23. Daita Minami (Japan)

24. Guille Alonso (Spain)