ICURFC Barbarians hampered by hangover

Kyoto University RFC 2nd XV 34 Imperial College Union RFC 2nd XV 19

After 24 hours travelling and one short nights sleep, for most (a number of senior players decided to set an example by making an impact on the Kyoto night scene. Some action was achieved although there were some discrepancy about the pedigree of the lady in question and the conditions under which it was achieved) ICURFC made their way to their first game of their tour of Japan.

The warm up was a relaxed affair, the reason for this was that it was too hot and too humid, but the truth is that many of the players needed a good nights sleep not only because of the antics from the previous night, but due to the fact that it was 08:30 for the tourists instead of the 16:30 that the locals claimed it to be.

The match started poorly reflecting the Imperial feelings of the heat and humidity. The Kyoto team were faster, more skilled, better adjusted to the conditions and taking advantage of the perfect pitch, Kyoto spread the ball wide and after a slick move, crossed the line.

Imperial started to wake up as it reached a godly hour and began to put some good rugby together. Surprisingly the tactic Imperial had the most success with was keeping the ball alive and passing out of the tackle. After a good break from Colin Hill, supported by other members of the 'Tight 5', Imperial were able to apply pressure on the Kyoto line. With a nice back move involving a big dummy run from Imperial`s big inside centre, Fraser James was able to step a significantly smaller player and score. A successful conversion levelled the score at 7-7

Kyoto returned the score with a long break but were unable to convert making the score 12-7.

Imperial began to find some form with a number of clean breaks from forwards, including a surprising number from prop Toby Spittle who found himself lost with space in front of him. Despite his lack of size, which he has always maintained he made up for by being quick around the park, he was unable to convert any of his breaks, being brought down by the full-back and wing after attempting to step them. If only he had had the pace of Alldridge or the size of O`Rourke the score would have been ticking over nicely.

The second Imperial try enabled Chris 'China Light' Lau to demonstrate his abilities in a match against players of similar size. Light made a break, was tackled (thus demonstrating the speed of the Kyoto players), however due to the comparative size, Light was able to pick himself up and continue. The try went unconverted leaving the scores tied - this may be in some part due to the injury sustained by Sasha Maitala meaning that the effectiveness of the crash ball at 12 was reduced.

During the second half the effects of the previous night started to tell as Imperial started to falter, however, with the replacement of some tired legs, Imperial were able to take the lead through Fresher Edward Vaughan who carried over from another quick break. At this point, it looked as though Imperial were going to go on and win the game, however, heat, humidity and hangovers began to tell enabling Kyoto to take control scoring a number of tries taking the game.

Team Awards Twat of the match - Paddy for dropping the ball over the line Man of the match - Toby Spittle