September 11, 2015

V Girls

Dateline: July 19th, 2015

The Tokyo Gaijin's last match of the Spring season was a 'Friendly' against Girls RFC (another one of those crazy names the Japanese teams come up with). The team had absolutely no idea of how strong or good the team was (having not played them for possibly ten years), It was new for us and we had to focus on playing as if we were playing against the strongest team we had ever met, which was really difficult becasue the Gaijin were so dispersed. None were really focused on the match. Being the last match of the Spring season, and a 'friendly' one and having a drunken boat tour of Tokyo Bay after the match, it was not easy to get the guys focused. Also, our captain Mr. Apisai Bati wasn't there to add seriousness to the warmup. He eventually arrived at the kickoff.

September 11, 2015

Sugadaira 2015

Timeline: July 11th & 12th

This year the trip didn't start very well. The first group of players, departing Saturday morning were divided into two groups. One group was with Murray Clarke, in his car, and the other group was going in a rented car driven by Don Tanaka. Well, Don is a really nice guy and a good prop but, he is not known for his punctuality. The group waiting at Shibuya station was still relaxed and unconcerned when he still hadn't shown up 15 minutes after the meeting time, and considering the traffic would hopefully be still fluid at 7:15 in the morning. After a few message exchanges over social media, the group started to get worried because it was verging on being too late (and in consequence, the team could not join the first match of the 7's tournament). Luckily Don eventually showed up, and the second van departed about 40 minutes late, but the team arrived in Sugadaira in time to particpate in the 7's tournament.

Sugadaira2015

June 2, 2015

Kurumi Too Good in Tokyo Cup Quarter Final

Dateline: May 31st, 2015

The Tokyo Gaijin RFC found Kurumi RFC a hurdle to high to handle in their quarter final match-up of the 2015 Tokyo Cup. Despite having won all three games in their pool rounds Kurumi were a step up but the Gaijin did do better than last year when they were beaten by the same team 69 v 0. This time around the result was 33 v 17 with the Gaijin outscored five tries to three.

May 18, 2015

Tokyo Cup 3rd Round – one point win.

Dateline: 17th May, 2015

The Tokyo Gaijin RFC continued their winning run in the 2015 Tokyo Cup but not without some tense final moments as Shinjuku Jacks scored 31 of their 38 points against 14 men and almost ran the Gaijin down in the second half. The Gaijin ran in 7 tries to 6 to secure a 39 v 38 win and march into the quarter finals. Halfback and vice-captain Eamonn Murphy faces a stint on the side line (a one match ban) after being red-carded early in the second half. Just before halftime (37th minute), the Gaijin had captain Apisai Bati yellow carded which meant they played 43 minutes with only 14 players.