Rugby

Wow rugby is getting good. This weekend we faced Baku & Clover (you can read more about it here)  and came away with a win thanks to a pair of tries from Toby and some hard grinding work from the forward pack and some good kick n chase by the back line. There was a bunch of other stuff going on at the same time. It was Chris "Feral" Fearon's  last game with us and I brought Miku my niece to the game with me. So I was a little stressed and hurried and did not have time to enjoy normal post match activities...... like beer. Still the match was good, I had a good couple of runs and am perfecting my smashing through technique with true Matt Downer style.

Finally the Rumble in the Ricebowl is starting to heat up. The rumble in the rice bowl will be Australia against New Zealand in one of the last Bledsoe cup matches of the season. My team The Tokyo Gaijin Rugby Football Club is using this as a fund raiser, by selling promotional T-shirts and Polos. Check out the site, you can even buy t-shirts right there on line.

Wow, Tokyo Cup is over and for the first time in 6 or 7 years we made it all the way to the finals, and for the first time, I started and played 60 minutes out of 80 in possibly the biggest game of the season. E-mails were flying back and forth on the list all week about what we should do, what needed to get done, who would do it and how. I added my usual motivation that I am sure some could do with out. But still when it came down to it, it was just another game. For most of us. For some, like me it was probably the biggest game of my short career, and I was starting. I couldn't sleep the night before because it had been raining all night and continued to rain throught the day. My stomac was a mess all the way up till I arrived at the station where we met. Several of the guys came up and asked me how I felt about starting. "I thought you guys wanted to win?" was my typical response. We got to the stadium and it was a a stadium with bleachers and astro-turf. We changed in a real locker room and got outside to warm up. The rain continued to pour down. Our competition was a the last place team from first division Rokko East. If we win we would get a promotion to Division 1 the highest ranked Tokyo based team competition. The pressure was on, full on. We did a quick dress check and went into the locker room and had a quick team meeting. Almost everyone spoke about what this meant to them and what we had to do. I said the same thing I had said all week. "We need to execute." "Execute the basics of rugby." After warming up I felt a bit better and was really ready to play. We passed around the ball a bit more and then it was time to get started. It was still raining lightly when the first shot got fired down range. The kickoff went over my head into Murrays hands and it was on, FULL ON! Like with most games I do not recall what happened minute to minute and now as I write this it is almost 2 weeks ago. What I do remember is the emotion and the physical feeling of playing. The hits. Joe plowing into a guy so hard the guy dropped the ball and I picked it up and started running. Seeing Al fighting to get the ball out of the ruck and me charging in and rucking out some one or 2 guys. Kevin sprinting away from me and every one else in a run away try. Watching Ken as he sprinted down the sideline for his try. Matt kicking the ball away time and again to when we got to deep in our own territory. Joffa tackling EVERYONE who had the ball.

So we had our first practice of the year and it was tough. I have been running a bit and doing my normal calisthenics, that mixed with not drinking have been good and I felt good going into it.

Al had other things in mind, and my legs and back are feeling them right now.
I was late as were others but as soon as practice kicked off we started with some complex fitness drills and I wished Al would have mailed out a training plan during the week. Then I could have at least faked having a clue.

Training went on and we did a couple of new drills we had not tried. The one I especially like was 2 defenders against 3 attackers. A twist I would add or kinda change is make every one do it 30 times and after 10 go from touch to smother, the after 20, all willing go from smother to full tackle.

That was kinda the idea but I wasn't ready and Dan 120 KG English bull steamrolled me. I saw him coming but didn't think he was moving that fast. My mistake and as I flew through the air I realized I was.

After practice we sat down for some Chinese and talked about the upcoming tour to Manila and recent Christmas party. We also discussed the upcoming YCAC match that is sure to be a test.

Finally the one thing everyone agreed that one point the team needs to work on is substitutions. Not putting green guys like yours truly in without some one to shadow. It has been a long term problem that we all know the answer too we need a good steady sideline coach who it there all the time and knows who is who and what the players skill sets are.

We had practice and a BBQ. The practice was hard fought training with a warm up team jog for a couple hundred meters followed by some stretching. Then the work began, 10 X 100 sprints. I was surprised at the fact that I could keep with Joe and had a good battle with So which he ended up trouncing me most races but I stayed with him. Practice went on as it usually does but we were missing a bunch of our forwards and that made the forward workout tough. We did a team run and I couldn't get things to click like I had previously and kept going offsides and getting in the way. ERRR! Finally we played touch and it was as always irritating I am not sure what it is about touch but it is so hard to grasp all the work we just did and having it come down to touch. Set pieces and other things do not happen all you can do is stay on a line in defense and try to go mark your man and not get caught out. Practice finished with some more calls and then A BBQ! BBQs are always a good time cause all the family members come and drink, cook, eat, talk and drink some more together. The kids who are all roughly the same age play and it is a good time for all. Wifes and kids eat free and the team sucks up the cost. It is really one of the best times to be part of the team. We had two new guys come out to training. Dan and Matt, said that they have been looking for a good social rugby team to play on for 11 months, I am sure they will both be back to play for us. On the way back Jesse saved me. As Eric and I were going up the escalator at the station a older man dressed in kinda Japanese biker styled clothes with a tan and a shaved head except a little tuft of hair in the front. Did what I can only describe as a rude gesture towards Eric. I got upset of course but he was going down the escalator and we were going up. So I let it go. But as we were sitting down to wait for the train, the guy came back up the stairs and started yelling at me in Japanese and calling me crazy which of course started me yelling back. I stood up and the guy moved on down to the other end of the tracks. Just then Jesse came up the escalator. I called him over and told him what happened he laughed. But now on the way back the guy looked at me and looked at Jesse and decided we were both a little more trouble than he was bargaining for. He walked silently past and went down to the escalator and appeared on the other side a few minutes later.