With the Junior World Cup wrapping up today there was a huge amount of rugby action going on throughout Japan – the Baby Blacks came forth and conquered, the Baby Wallabies just came fourth and the Baby Blossoms finally managed to win a match and finish the tournament the position in which they were seeded (15th).
 
However, despite this feast of U20 rugby, perhaps the best performance of the day on this on this Rainy Season Sunday occurred at the Hodogaya Rugby Ground, far away from the big crowds and the bright lights, where a YCAC team with eight different nationalities in their side clinically put away a fiery Kamariya Club and in doing so wrapped the Kanagawa League 2nd Division title.
 
In a similar fashion to the past two weeks, YCAC again started the match very well and managed to defy the wet conditions and play some excellent running rugby in the first half. The try by hooker Dean “Yes we are really doing this!” Stallard-Fahy was the best example of this with almost every YCAC player handling the ball in the lead-up to the score. As in previous weeks, the YCAC tight forwards set an excellent platform for the rest of the team to build off and the backline took full advantage of this with fly-half Ben “Angry Fox” Duncan, inside center Grant “Mr. Normal” Thompson, wing Mike “Griffo” Griffin and fullback Willie “Mini Me” Lapthorn all managing first half scores. Outside center Tristan “Are we really doing this?” Fahy-Stallard and Thompason also did well to knock over four conversions from the sideline between them.
 
Unfortunately the second half was a lot less free-flowing, probably through a combination of Kamariya Club lifting and YCAC taking the foot off the pedal with the match already won. However, there were still some positives to come out of the second half. Replacement wing “Tryin” Brian Ryan did an excellent job in setting up Griffin for his second try and YCAC’s defence was consistently excellent, with a lot of determination shown to keep the opposition from scoring.
 
At the end of the match the YCAC captain was presented with a certificate and a plaque to commemorate the victory. He promptly managed to temporarily lose these items by leaving them in the changing rooms and heading back to Hodogaya station without them. Luckily, YCAC manager “Caviar” Ken Noguchi (Happy 40th Birthday tomorrow mate) was still on hand to give the forgetful skipper a ride back to the ground and, even more luckily, the trophies of victory were still in the changing rooms when he returned for them!
 
Onwards and upwards to the promotion match next Sunday.

Joe