Dateline: July 3rd, 2016

The Tokyo Gaijin RFC were hoping that one of their two squads would do the team proud and win the Shuto League 10's competition. The team has a good record at the event with the Southern Hemisphere team winning it three times (including a win over their Northern team mates in the final in 2014), and the Northern Hemisphere team making the final last year.

The Shuto League has allowed the Gaijin to enter two teams into the competition for a number of years now due to their strong roster. The Northern team was made up of local Japanese and  foreigners coming from the northern hemisphere - with representatives from England, USA, Spain, France, and Croatia  this year and the Southern team was made up of foreigners from the Southern hemisphere - with representatives from Fiji, Australian and a lone Kiwi this year. As they have a far smaller pool to select from the South usually gets a few Japanese players as well (if the North don't complain too much). With the recent spate of injuries in the backs both teams were very forward heavy, not ideal in 10's.

Dateline 26th June, 2016

The Tokyo Gaijin RFC had done all the hard work through the pool and knockout stages of the Tokyo Cup and reached the final for the first time in their 25 year history. They were up against Supermen RFC, who they had thumped 85 v 17 in the 1st round of the  Champion's League (aka. Cup Winners Cup) in which they went on to win the final against Mandara RFC to create history. This game provided them with another potential first  - Tokyo Cup 1st Divsion champions.The Gaijin team on this day was quite a different team though as they had been devastated by injuries in their backs throughout the campaign. They were also missing two young Fijian backs (Kelepi & Bati Junior) who were standouts back in March.

Supermen are a quality outfit and obviously one of the best teams in Tokyo. Depite the thumping back in March they were favorites for the game and the injury count for the Gaijin made it more so. The Gaijin stayed in the game for 60 minutes but the overwhelming penalty count against them and the lack of depth brought about by the injury toll started to become apparent as the game rolled to its conclusion.

The referee was particularly harsh on the Gaijn and quickly and heavily penalised them for any perceived infractions whereas he showed Supermen a lot more leniency. The Gaijin received three yellow cards throughout the match. This was a burden that made it difficult for them to win.