YCAC 10s (Wednesday) and game V YCAC (Sunday)
There's something unnerving about a trip to the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club. It has little to do with their having a strong side (they do), or with the distance of the journey to get there (it's quite far for most of us); rather it's an unmistakeably musty whiff of conceit. Whether that conceit is real or imagined is, of course, something that we can leave to the multi-million-earning clinical pyschologists but seeing as bugger-all clinical pyschologists play footie - and the ones who do probably play for YCAC - it's by the by.
The day was glorious, the pitch was in its customary good nick (there have to be some benefits to immersing oneself in imperiousness, and listening to plummy accents whilst trying to spot the Raj-era safari suits doesn't qualify), and a healthy squad of 15 was primed.