Tokyo Crusaders vs. Girls RFC 43-7 (W)
by Evan Kerr
Summer weather had finally arrived when most of the Cru members [Benji and Frank aside, promising stories of seeing the Eiffel Tower] woke up begging for another opportunity to do what they work all week for; Play Rugby!
Unfortunately, by the time most of us had rolled into Koiwa Station, the sky resembled something which the armed forces section of our team have been dreading since they first signed up for service all those years ago. But Tooley said that he had seen this thing before in the infamous “Boom” and it was bigger and better then, so this was just some of the ‘China death dust’ with no rain in it. If only that was all he said for the day!
Plenty of direction was given before the game about not trying to go for the long pass and to play possession rugby. It wasn’t long before the team-orientated rugby of protecting the ball paid off, with Richard getting across the line thanks to some tough work from all involved. Travis had more chance of staying sober until June then he did making the conversion as the wind was playing havoc with everything.
It was harder going for the next spell with both teams struggling a little with the conditions, not that the Cru weren’t looking threatening, getting close to the line a few times, There were some great runs, with Mo, Trav, Ginger and Patrick all having an impact. Working with some nice ball movement, the Cru ran over with Dan Gonzalez finishing a try set up by a nice break from Trav. Before the end of the half the Cru ran two more in, credit going to Trav and Ginger for some individual brilliance to get over for another two converted trys. Ending the half at 24-0
The Cru were caught basking in the glorious conditions and allowed the opposition to run one in within the first minute of the half. Not to be outdone though, Brandon ‘can I get herpes again from Nester’s boot?’ Fought read a breakdown beautifully and was off to the races to run one in with more style than the latest Dior advertisement from 35 metres out. Mo was generally unhappy with the look of the scrum and decided to make it his mission to get as many of the inexperienced forward pack ‘in his ass’ as possible. Patrick had decided that breaking people’s ribs in the line out and being generally tough around the pitch wasn’t enough, and got one home 20 minutes later like a rampaging elephant. Living up to the elephant comparison, Patrick ‘Stompy’ Murray was given a yellow card for having too much of an impact on the game [and maybe just a little bit of accidental ‘stomping’..] Girls RFC surely were having a laugh trying to see how close to the opposite side of the river they could place 3 of our balls, in response to this Trav decided to double up.
All round it was a great effort with all players rising to the occasion. Those who I thought stood out but haven’t been mentioned due to laziness are Sean Gibson, Alex Diaz, Gen Hirano and Seth Robson. A big thanks to Andy for coming down and running the lines along with Koichi and Taka.
Post-match was held at Warawara Izakaya where 15 of us mounted a table and sucked as much winner’s piss as we could handle. Brandon more than most when he had to ‘shoot the boot’ for his try that day. The usual shenanigans were observed, including Tooley ‘zooming in’ on the one available womb in the room after delighting us with stories about cross-cultural/religious events and relations that he had taken part in throughout what must have been the most action-packed 20 years known to man.
Cheers Boys!
The Other Evan
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Players Men of the Match:
1st – Mo
2nd – Travis
3rd – Patrick / Sean Gerhold