It seems, as per usual protocol, that the Tokyo Gaijin played against 16 men, if you include the referee. It was a hard fought and tense game that eventually went the way of the Gaijin thanks to Matt scoring all the points and kicking a last play penalty to win the game.
On the 6th of September the Tokyo Gaijin RFC (TGRFC) gathered in Akigase, near Nishi Urawa in Saitama for their first double-header in some time. A big squad of 34 guys answered the call to arms. First up was All Jin Jan, a strong team, and favorites to win the League. The Gaijin were keen for a measure of revenge as they had been demoted from Tokyo Cup 1st Division in the Spring season in a muddy 7v0 loss, while All Jin Jan had smashed Rocco East on the same day to gain promotion to 1st Division.
We just fielded a mail through our site from someone in Australia asking if we can purchase tickets to the Bledisloe Cup in Tokyo. This person did not want to go through a packaged tour company as they plan to stay on and see a few extra sights around Japan.
We said, yes, we CAN buy tickets for them. However, there is a catch.
The catch is that we would like 1) advanced payment and 2) for them to thank us (support us) by purchasing Rumble in the Rice Bowl T-shirts from our fund-raising site (one per ticket we buy, click here for more info on Rumble in the Rice Bowl).
Saturday the 11th of July was the day we had all been waiting for, and a meeting time of 6:45am had been laid down clearly in correspondence leading up to the day. Due once again to the sensational organisational skills of Alaister Nimmo, a large contingent of around 45 players, supporters, parents, and offspring had been put together to make the annual pilgrimage to Rugby Mecca Sugadaira. The group - bristling with anticipation and anxious to get on the road - was forced to wait even longer thanks to newly crowned Harlequin model Andy "Mr. Cool" Ballard. In scenes reminiscent of a Sugadaira departure some years previous, when former Gaijin player and fellow model Romeo Devlin strolled up to the bus 40 minutes late with Starbuck's coffee in hand, Mr. Cool and Czech mate Lucie showed similar distain for the arrangements in turning up considerably later than our planned departure time. We couldn't stay angry at them for long though, and once on the road our high spirits returned. Making good time in the luxury coach that Nimmo had hired for the trip, conversations on the journey up ranged from the validity of Al Gore's global warming crusade to the benefits of hedging currency when doing business with overseas companies. We were also treated to Blake Walker's full repertoire of Michael Jackson jokes.
The trip flew by, and after a quick stop in the Sugadaira township to pick up some supplies, we pulled into Hotel Davos around 11:30. Kitted up and back on the bus by 12 noon, we made our way to the location of Saturday's 10's tournament. As with last year, it seemed that the so-called "organisers" of the 10's would have difficulty arranging a Nomikai at the Suntory factory. With five teams present, some kind of round-robin tournament would surely have been the best approach, but it was a knock-out tournament that eventuated.
