Odds and Ends

* Charles Joffre scored a hatrick in his farewell game for the Gaijin against his countrymen, All France, on the 19th June.  The  'Friendly' game was played out at Yanokuchi Field. The All France team turned up with a miserable 6 players (hence the decision not to write a full article about the game). Luckily the Gaijin had plenty in reserve and were able to lend them enough to get a game going. Joffre also converted one of his tries to give him a 17 point haul for the game. Andy Ballard captained the team well and led from the front and Semi Leiene was a standout at fullback. Newcomer, Spanish prop Ismael, scored two tries on debut, Bati Apisai got one and Alex Glover also got a try to cap a purple patch of tries over the last couple of months for the young Englishman. The final score was 40-odd to 7 with Gaijin back Tristan O'Connor scoring for the All France side.

The annually contested Oakwood cup between the Seoul Survivors and the Tokyo Gaijin was this year hosted on Japanese soil. A larger group from Korea made the trip than the Gaijin group who made the inaugural trip last season. This permitted a full 80 minutes of 15-a-side rugby on the excellent Tatsumi soil, and the match did not dissapoint the build-up.

Dateline : June 12th, 2011

The Tokyo Gaijin played Shinjuku Jacks at Misato in a game they had to win if they were to stay in 1st Division in the Tokyo Cup in 2012. With a large portion of the 1st team away at Andy Ballard's wedding in Prague a few old boys were dragged out of bed in ex-Gaijin captains Murray Clarke and Brendon Doherty. With both regular Captain Alaister Nimmo and Vice-captain Richard O'Shea in Prague the Captaincy duties were handed to the experienced Clarke.

This is the column where you find out what is happening with your team. Read on to find out about the comings and goings from your team, the rumours and innuendo, with a few sprinkles of real news to top it off.

COMINGS & GOINGS

Goings:

* 2010 Captain Tomo Togo has been exiled to Hong Kong. Occupational hazard! Apparently he intends to make 'paid' guest appearances when he is back in town visiting Ma, Pa & Bra Togo. Less handsome, less intelligent, older brother Yoz is flying the family flag by making 5 minute cameos every three or four weeks. It has been noted that his pace is quite deceptive...he's actually slower than he looks.