What a Game, What a Night

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. I came off about 15-20 minutes into the 2nd half. My hands were shaking and I could hardly walk. I was physically and mentally exhausted. Shaking on the sidelines in the cold rain I tried to get some energy into me and some water. Steam rose off my body as I removed my game pads and shirt. It was a awesome game and some where along the lines some one was keeping score and we found that we were actually winning. We were ready to take it all the way. Rokko East had other ideas. In the final minutes they got 2 shocking penalties that got them 2/3 of the way up the field. They were on our line banging and banging away but could not break through. There was a whistle then a scrum. Kevin went down w/a cramped calf and as I ran to stretch it out for him and screamed at the reff to stop the game, Rokko East smashed through to the try line. About 30 seconds later the final whistle blew. We had lost. I was mad, not mad, upset is the best way to put it. We had come so far worked so hard. There was not a single player on our team who did not want to win, in their heart. Some of the guys wanted to blame the ref, which I think was fair he was a LITTLE one sided, but they always are when it comes to a Gaijin team. The long and short is that we lost and all the arguing was not gonna help us. The whistle had blown the game was over. We showered, changed and headed to the going away party for Tucker and Garrett. Our jerseys were wet and heavy and left to fen for them self's so I picked them up and with the help of Ashely and Vico made sure they got to the second place. Where thanks to Joe Fisher they were taken home and washed. The party commenced and food and drink were flowing Muz made about 200 speeches but in one he named me and Matt. To have my named said in the same speech with Matt's WOW. Everyone congratulated me on what a great job I had done. I was ... shocked. Literally in shock. That party finished up and we went to the next place. More beer and more speeches and prizes for the 2 guys who are going away. At one point Muz pulled Joffa up on stage and made a strong speech about what a shambles the team would be w/o him. It's true, he is the real soul of the team. A great player on the field and a great manager off of it. I think I almost saw a tear in old Joffas eye. Probably just some dust. I had a few more beers and ended the night with walking one of my co-workers who had attended the party to the train. It was a great end to a great run. Thanks again to every one on the team and good luck to Garrett and Tucker.