YCAC-2008
Friday (2008-01-08 ya I am a little behind) I got a call from Joe Fisher The Tokyo Gaijin coach who plays for YCAC during the winter. Joe and I run in very different circles even though we play for the same team so I was surprised he was calling me. He asked me to come out and play for his team on Sunday cause they were short of numbers.
I was a little shocked. He must really be in a pinch to call me. I accepted and it turned out I got a full game out of it.
When I got to the YCAC facility on Sunday I was a little amazed at the place. in the middle of Yokohama was a full size pitch with a decent amount of grass. On top of that there was a locker room with showers and a hot tub, a club house with food and beer. WOW not some thing you see every day in Japan. For guys who play rugby all their life I am sure that they have seen a couple of nice places like this but I hadn't.
We warmed up and Joe introduced me to everyone and we ran through a couple of line out drills and a few other things.
The game started and it was ON. Most of the guys for YCAC looked to be about my age but heavier so I was a little surprised when they all started moving pretty quick. I am not a great player, but I think in this game I did particularly well especially in the first half.
A couple of highlights where when I dropped a kick off return but immediately jumped on it to not allow a turn over. I ran a kick return and fell down like a sissy soccer player when some one tapped my ankle.
I was a penalty magnet in the first half as well so as hard as I tried I could not stay within the rule book. One time I rucked over for the ball then it shot out to the side I was falling and tried not to land directly on the ball but ended up hitting it with my arm. Suck got another penalty.
In about the last 5 minutes of play I was diving to make a tackle and I caught a cramp in both calf's. I fell to the ground writing in pain. Kyoko the medical assistant and Shin-san another player rushed out to help me. The right calf was OK in a matter of seconds but the left was hard as a rock they sprayed it with some cold spray and stretched it. To my surprise in 1 minute I was back on my feet. The Ref who I met a previous game asked me by name if I wanted to go off. There was no one else to replace me so I sucked it up for the last 10 minutes. Kyoko came around a couple more times with the cold spray and I made it through the rest of the match. Thanks Kyoko. She also took the pictures that you see here.
Joe had a incredible game with 19 tries in the first half alone. Well not really but I think he came away with 2 or 3.
One thing I noted about playing with this team, they were so quite. Usually Joe is the least vocal guy on the Gaijin team every one else is coming out yelling and screaming and he is trying to calm people down. YCAC was not my team so I kept my mouth shut most of the time and let Joe do all the yelling. Which if you know me and you know Joe... is a pretty strange thing.
Finally the Reff. I think one of the reasons the game was so quite was the reffing. Usually we have SHIT reffs and we have to argue every call and things get worse and worse from there. The Reff this week is a guy who plays for All France and has been known to come drinking with the Gaijin and is a good fair reff. He is always in the correct place at the correct time to judge things and calls what he sees not what he thinks. I really think if we had a few more reffs around like him the Gaijin matches would be a slightly more gentlemanly affair.
All in all though I played well I thought and only found myself completely in the wrong place once or thrice. My tackling still sucks but there is no way to fix that ... except tackle, so I will keep working on it. To next weeks Gaijin practice.
E./
I was a little shocked. He must really be in a pinch to call me. I accepted and it turned out I got a full game out of it.
When I got to the YCAC facility on Sunday I was a little amazed at the place. in the middle of Yokohama was a full size pitch with a decent amount of grass. On top of that there was a locker room with showers and a hot tub, a club house with food and beer. WOW not some thing you see every day in Japan. For guys who play rugby all their life I am sure that they have seen a couple of nice places like this but I hadn't.
We warmed up and Joe introduced me to everyone and we ran through a couple of line out drills and a few other things.
The game started and it was ON. Most of the guys for YCAC looked to be about my age but heavier so I was a little surprised when they all started moving pretty quick. I am not a great player, but I think in this game I did particularly well especially in the first half.
A couple of highlights where when I dropped a kick off return but immediately jumped on it to not allow a turn over. I ran a kick return and fell down like a sissy soccer player when some one tapped my ankle.
I was a penalty magnet in the first half as well so as hard as I tried I could not stay within the rule book. One time I rucked over for the ball then it shot out to the side I was falling and tried not to land directly on the ball but ended up hitting it with my arm. Suck got another penalty.
In about the last 5 minutes of play I was diving to make a tackle and I caught a cramp in both calf's. I fell to the ground writing in pain. Kyoko the medical assistant and Shin-san another player rushed out to help me. The right calf was OK in a matter of seconds but the left was hard as a rock they sprayed it with some cold spray and stretched it. To my surprise in 1 minute I was back on my feet. The Ref who I met a previous game asked me by name if I wanted to go off. There was no one else to replace me so I sucked it up for the last 10 minutes. Kyoko came around a couple more times with the cold spray and I made it through the rest of the match. Thanks Kyoko. She also took the pictures that you see here.
Joe had a incredible game with 19 tries in the first half alone. Well not really but I think he came away with 2 or 3.
One thing I noted about playing with this team, they were so quite. Usually Joe is the least vocal guy on the Gaijin team every one else is coming out yelling and screaming and he is trying to calm people down. YCAC was not my team so I kept my mouth shut most of the time and let Joe do all the yelling. Which if you know me and you know Joe... is a pretty strange thing.
Finally the Reff. I think one of the reasons the game was so quite was the reffing. Usually we have SHIT reffs and we have to argue every call and things get worse and worse from there. The Reff this week is a guy who plays for All France and has been known to come drinking with the Gaijin and is a good fair reff. He is always in the correct place at the correct time to judge things and calls what he sees not what he thinks. I really think if we had a few more reffs around like him the Gaijin matches would be a slightly more gentlemanly affair.
All in all though I played well I thought and only found myself completely in the wrong place once or thrice. My tackling still sucks but there is no way to fix that ... except tackle, so I will keep working on it. To next weeks Gaijin practice.
E./