Japan Tour Diary Entry Number 4

Number 18 has been hard at work, both on and off the field, and we present his latest offering.

Day 4 Konichiwa!

We got a sleep-in today. Up at 7:50 for an 8am breakfast. Game’s at 1:45. We needed that extra kip after Kalani, Sevu and Jermayne were up half the night throwing pillows around our dorm. The second half of the night Sevu spent sleep-talking about his girlfriend. I think her name is Shaniqua. We have learnt that this is a regular thing for Sevu. Shanan is yet to ease up on his snoring. The rest of the morning was spent relaxing in preparation for the game.

It’s soon 11:45 and showers, eating, strapping, rubs and team meetings are all underway. We walk over to the stadium at 12:50 with our heads high ready for our biggest battle of the season to date. The winner of our game today will qualify top of our pool and meet Higashi Fukuoka in the quarter-final.

The game is a typical New Zealand versus France encounter. Not a lot of skillful rugby played, but a huge amount of passion and desperation. The French are up for this game big time and are as dirty as! Eye gouges, punches, stomping, and places being grabbed that you don’t want to be grabbed all happening. Two very well worked tries scored by James and Elijah, plus a penalty and a conversion from Orbyn saw us sneak home 15-3 and top our pool leading into the quarterfinals. Sevu stars with a number of strong bursts and is rightfully named MVP.

After such a physical encounter the coaches rewarded us with some well-deserved down time. Our injury toll is huge and our meeting room looks more like a scene from “Shortland Street”. Our Doc is a busy man as he works through the battered and beaten in an attempt to get as many as possible available for tomorrows encounter against a very talented Higashi Fukuoka team who have already knocked over the Poms in their pool play. Dinner’s at 6pm and then a team meeting tonight, hopefully Jojo and Doc can bring us in an ice cream each, none for the hundy club though, otherwise those boys' skin folds would be heading through the roof. Ayden and Oscar are gutted!

Sayonara, for now

No. 18