In attendance: Joffa Harris, Lonnie Childress, Toru kanamori, Jesse Takahashi, Murray Clarke, Dan Salter, Steve Bull, Matt Downer, Paulo de Berriozabal, Niall Conlon, Lawrence Hii, Jerry Brady, Will Thompson, Erin Hughes, Andy Ballard, Rob Poulton, Jo Iwasaki, So Nagashima, Yoshihiro Sato, Shino Iwasaki, Kyoko Conlon, Lucie Ballard
The Tokyo Gaijin started the day at Ichikawa fields in typical fashion. Half the team was late. Though for a change, this was not in any way due to drinks the night before, late morning pillow talk or anything to be blamed on the players: it was because all of Tokyo was being battered and blown by some of the fiercest winds seen this side of Typhoon season. The majority of surface trains were suffering from stoppages as carriages ran the risk of coming off rails. Dan Salter and Lawrence Hii didn’t even make it to the ground as they were stuck on trains for over one hour. The Fijian connection of Semi Leiene and Saki Ratu turned up 5 minutes before kickoff.
Date: 17th February 2008
Opposition; Ichikawa Rush
League: Champion’s League – as winners of the Shuto League with 5 out of 6 wins the Tokyo Gaijin were to represent that league in a knockout Champion’s League. First up opposition were Ichikawa Rush who were Champions of the Ichihara League (Chiba).
From the very beginnings of the game there were warning signals that we in attendance at the game on this chilliest of days, may have visited upon us the infamous TGRFC Bogeyman. Many teams besides TGRFC also seem to be vexed by their own on occasion; in the case of our own venerable club, as recently as two years ago, there seemed to be not one, but at least two or three actually in residence within the team (whether or not it is mere coincidence that his/their existence is numerically identical to that of the Sydney and Adelaide contingent** in the team may be a matter too controversial, emotional and divisive to devote much time to given the restraints of space and time in producing a not too lengthy, but precise nonetheless, match report. (Watch out for a piece on that at a later date!)
