That is gonna leave a mark......
.........on our record that is.
We had our first match of the year Sunday Tokyo Gaijin vs Kogeni Green. In the final match of the Shuto League where win loose or draw we were the champs as long as we just showed up. That is pretty much what happened. We just showed up.
I had my usual pre game jitters and did not feel good till we started warming up. As things started to kick in I was fine but didn't have my normal fire and intensity. I am pretty a low key player. But this game I kept having to check my pulse to see if I was alive.
Seriously the game started out so so, then went to great finally we just nose dived in the final minutes.
On the Giajin team I have always thought our set pieces were particularly strong but not this time. The Kogeni scrum was strong, by far the strongest we had been up against all of the Shuto league. A normal Gaijin scrum involves us steam rolling our opposition with good tight technique or pure brute strength, or a combination of both.
Kogeni owned us on more than one occasion when I was on the field and when I was off others felt their wrath. They stood our front row straight up and crumpled our back tight 5. They were big fat fast Japanese guys.
In our line outs... I just can not describe it Murray is a awesome jumper and was being hefted by 2 strong guys Rob and Garret but he was getting beaten to the ball more times than not.
We did well in the first half scoring 2 tries or so but with such strong set pieces the Kogeni team pinned us in our own end and held us down there for much of the half and that really wore everyone out.
In the second half I cant say anything else except we just went to shit. The ref played into it as well. His calls seemed to do nothing but irritate us, later it was argued that he was right, right or wrong ... his calls played a part as our frustration built. The nice thing I think about not knowing the rules by the letter is I do not tend to loose my cool when the reff gets at us. But other guys do, and they know who they are.
In the final minutes one of their players scored a try and for some reason they did not go for the kicking conversion. Then in the following 2 minutes Kogeni marched down the field and put the final nail in the gaijin coffin. With that try we lost .... by one point. To end the season Champs, but not undefeated.
That said there were plenty of highlights. Matt and Murray made hits like it was going out of style.
I had a guy lined up he was running on to me and had no were to go on his right I was stepping slowly towards him. I could see he was gonna go left, I was ready for it. Then BLAM! Murray nailed him and the ball went flying I stepped over and protected the ball and we got the ball back. That guy did not even see Murray coming cause he was thinking about me.
Matt hit a guy right in center field and knocked the guy so hard the whole Gaijin sideline screamed. "Thats a beer!"
Joffa scored a try right under the posts and on his 40th birthday no less. Batti, and Tucker had some amazing runs, and both picked up tries. Matt's skills at hitting and kicking were awesome.
All told it was not that bad of a game. Kogeni Greens strength took our forwards out of the game in the set pieces which to me is our greatest weapons, but hey what do I know.
Next week we face a strong YCAC team in a match that will not be easy by any means. Lets get ready for it.
We had our first match of the year Sunday Tokyo Gaijin vs Kogeni Green. In the final match of the Shuto League where win loose or draw we were the champs as long as we just showed up. That is pretty much what happened. We just showed up.
I had my usual pre game jitters and did not feel good till we started warming up. As things started to kick in I was fine but didn't have my normal fire and intensity. I am pretty a low key player. But this game I kept having to check my pulse to see if I was alive.
Seriously the game started out so so, then went to great finally we just nose dived in the final minutes.
On the Giajin team I have always thought our set pieces were particularly strong but not this time. The Kogeni scrum was strong, by far the strongest we had been up against all of the Shuto league. A normal Gaijin scrum involves us steam rolling our opposition with good tight technique or pure brute strength, or a combination of both.
Kogeni owned us on more than one occasion when I was on the field and when I was off others felt their wrath. They stood our front row straight up and crumpled our back tight 5. They were big fat fast Japanese guys.
In our line outs... I just can not describe it Murray is a awesome jumper and was being hefted by 2 strong guys Rob and Garret but he was getting beaten to the ball more times than not.
We did well in the first half scoring 2 tries or so but with such strong set pieces the Kogeni team pinned us in our own end and held us down there for much of the half and that really wore everyone out.
In the second half I cant say anything else except we just went to shit. The ref played into it as well. His calls seemed to do nothing but irritate us, later it was argued that he was right, right or wrong ... his calls played a part as our frustration built. The nice thing I think about not knowing the rules by the letter is I do not tend to loose my cool when the reff gets at us. But other guys do, and they know who they are.
In the final minutes one of their players scored a try and for some reason they did not go for the kicking conversion. Then in the following 2 minutes Kogeni marched down the field and put the final nail in the gaijin coffin. With that try we lost .... by one point. To end the season Champs, but not undefeated.
That said there were plenty of highlights. Matt and Murray made hits like it was going out of style.
I had a guy lined up he was running on to me and had no were to go on his right I was stepping slowly towards him. I could see he was gonna go left, I was ready for it. Then BLAM! Murray nailed him and the ball went flying I stepped over and protected the ball and we got the ball back. That guy did not even see Murray coming cause he was thinking about me.
Matt hit a guy right in center field and knocked the guy so hard the whole Gaijin sideline screamed. "Thats a beer!"
Joffa scored a try right under the posts and on his 40th birthday no less. Batti, and Tucker had some amazing runs, and both picked up tries. Matt's skills at hitting and kicking were awesome.
All told it was not that bad of a game. Kogeni Greens strength took our forwards out of the game in the set pieces which to me is our greatest weapons, but hey what do I know.
Next week we face a strong YCAC team in a match that will not be easy by any means. Lets get ready for it.