So at the weekend, there was more rugby around than you could possibly shake a stick at.
Not only that, but I played in only my second game on Japanese soil. I played for Tokyo Gaijin Rugby Club. Gaijin means foreigner in Japanese, so it's an exiles team, basically.
Match report first:
Coming off the back of a reasonable performance last time (playing for Sano club a couple of months ago, I scored four tries but missed a tackle) I was expecting to improve in all areas of the game this time around.
I was to play only a half, as our team had a total of thirty players, and everyone wanted to get onto the pitch.
I started on the wing, and was destined to stay there for the half I played. The opening exhanges were forwards based, and the ball never made it past the outside centre. Around five minutes in, our team (Tokyo Gaijin) kicked on and started putting some passes out wide. A series of fine passes was undermined when the final two in the movement ended up behind the player, with me taking the ball with no momentum on the wing. Luckily that didn't matter, and I pushed through the first tackle, dummied the winger, and left the full back on his backside to score next to the posts. That was the first of three - but I can only remember two.
I was only called upon defensively a few times, but I managed to bundle two into touch, and turn over two balls in that time. One turnover was a direct steal from one of their backs, the other was their number eight running into me, thinking he could bowl me over. Unluckily for him we probably weighed the same, and I held him up to force a turnover from the referee.
The second try I honestly don't remember. It might not even exist.
The third came in the form of a breakaway on the right, going through one and past another. This one was notable only for the pettiness of their inside centre, whom I took objection to. I had scored the try, and three seconds later he slid into my head, knees first. I was already getting back up after the try at this point, and the lateness, coupled with the illegality, suggests this guy is a terrible loser. Luckily I was still holding the ball and got it up to my head before his knees reached me.
Needless to say, I was less than impressed. No punches were thrown however, and it was at this point the team was completely changed. Over the next two minutes there were half a dozen changes, and I was taken off the wing. It's a shame, because I'm sure I would have prevented the try down my wing, scored by their inside centre of all people; with around ten minutes to go. I would have stopped that guy with vengeance. I was so angry at that point, I probably would have stopped him with enough force to ensure he was also prevented from working for the next week.
The second half descended into an under 10's game with around twenty to go, with no structure present on either team. It was quite entertaining to watch for that fact alone, but it shows what I've said about Japanese sports in general: defence is a lower priority in all their sports.
For the effort I got a man of the match award, which was my own personal aim prior to the match. I was a little worried as being on the wing affords so little time with the ball, or even tackling for that matter. I had stayed with the captain the night before (in one of the most plush apartments I've ever seen) and didn't want all the travelling to be wasted. It ended up okay in the end, but I still want more ball!
That's one and a half games of rugby in Japan, seven tries, and half a dozen turnovers. Tries being indicative of attack, turnovers being indicative of defensive work (it's not enough to make all your tackles, that's a given; good play hinges on providing something for your team), and nothing being mentioned of the heat. It gets hot here, really hot. (No sunburn this time though, yay!)
Thanks to Alistair Nimmo (whose nickname should most certainly be
nemo) for putting me up the night before, and thanks to the team for a hot, but fun game of rugby.
I'll put the Tokyo Gaijin match report up here when it's written, and you can contrast and compare proceedings. Obviously this blog is written by me, so it's ego centric...
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So of the internationals played this weekend. Three games stood out for me. The England Argentina game was as to be expected. England ground out a win despite shoddy refereeing, and despite Wilkinson not being able to kick a thing. To be fair, this entire tournament has been problematic for kickers, with percentages
well below normal.
Talking of shoddy refereeing; the game I played in Tokyo had additional rules. Firstly, all tackling must be conducted under the armpits. Say what? No shoulder to shoulder contact allowed. That referee is obviously an ex-footballer (to be fair he was about 35kg's). The second rule: no hand-offs in the face. Chest only.
This one actually forced me to change the way I played the match. Normally you hit up a straight line and then step while forcing the opposing players' face away. This time, I had to push them backwards with a hand to the chest and hope the outside man didn't turn inwards.
Japanese fake rules do not make for interesting rugby.
It's not a safety orientated rule either, because our scrum half showed how easily a hand can slip to the face during a hand off, as the man tackling him stood bolt upright. He couldn't grip the shirt and his hand went up as a result. This happened a few times during the match, but was only penalised once.
Anyway; if anyone thought England would easily beat Argentina then they were deluding themselves. Argentina are one of the top ranked sides in international rugby, and have emerged out of seemingly nowhere in the past decade to become a force to be reckoned with. When they join the tri-nations next year, they will only become stronger. I can't help but feel it's a trick the six nations missed, as their inclusion in any tournament greatly adds to its commercial viability.
Delon Armitage had a good game, showing an interesting aspect to having two full-backs on the field, as he was adept under the high ball. Foden made some ground with limited ball, but in a game dominated by shoddy refereeing and forward domination, the backs didn't have any momentum.
The Wales South Africa game showed the importance of refereeing once again, as James Hook kicked a penalty for it to be disallowed. In a one point match, that kind of mistake is rather important to the outcome.
The game actually mirrored the warmup match between England and Wales in which England lost. In that match, England had all the possession and all the territory, but still lost.
In this match, Wales had all the territory and all the possession, but still lost. The northern hemisphere have a criminal inability to convert possession into points. There were a dozen missed half opportunities, not just the penalties.
It was also telling that Wales took ten or more phases to march SA back twenty metres, turned the ball over and found themselves forty metres back in three phases. The Welsh defence is not able to hold up against southern hemisphere attack. The forwards stopped their counterparts most of the time, but the SA backs ran rampant.
The only back on the Welsh side who made in-roads was Jamie Roberts, (I think that's his name) who took a huge number of balls up through the middle, and consistently made ground on each. Williams forgot he was playing with fourteen other people on the pitch and kept getting pushed back. Stay on your wing, mate.
On the first match performances alone, Wales are looking the sharpest of the Northern Hemisphere teams, which is disappointing because they won't make it out of the quarter finals.
The last match of interest was Romania Scotland. This match is significant because it illustrates something rarely seen on a world stage in any context. Scotland has gone from being a tier one rugby nation, to now being tier two. Romania were all over Scotland for the vast majority of the match, but ran out of steam in the last ten minutes. For Scotland to rely on superior fitness means they don't have the skill to get results. They have slipped, and only time will tell if they can stand up with the best once more.
Contrary to what most people are saying, I don't think the Japan France game shows us any more than we already knew. Japan upped their game (expected - it's a world cup) and France were asleep for most of the game (expected - it's France).
That's it for the bumper rugby edition. Phew.
(Boy do I ache today, I didn't even do that much yesterday!)
