1972 Interport Rugby in Japan

YC&AC beats Kobe

11th March 72

                           Y.C. & A.C. 28 points     K.R. & A.C. Nil

Y.C. & A.C. started as firm favourites to win this game by a comfortable margin. Kobe however got off to a splendid start settling down very quickly with some attractive runs originating from superior line out play. The club however slowly began to get into their stride and as soon as the line out threat had been realised and partially mastered we were able to bring our own backs into the game.

The club’s opening score however was a penalty goal very well taken by Stan French. Y.C. & A.C. continued to press and the forwards were beginning to knit well in the set pieces. With good clean ball it wasn’t long before the backs were able to make an opening to send Joe Broderick over for a good try, Stan French had no problem with the conversion. Kobe however were at this stage far from beaten and besides tackling well in defence started some good moves with stand off Camp and centre Kusaka both looking very dangerous. Kobe hopes of a come back were short lived however when Russell, with hardly a yard to move in, dropped a beautiful goal followed soon after with a tremendous penalty goal from way out. This well and truly sealed Kobe’s fate and when Broderick got another try, converted by French before half time to make the score 21 points to nil the writing was on the wall. In fact at this stage it looked more than probable that yours truly was going to lose his bet to a very optimistic Y.C. & A.C. supporter that the club would notch up at least fifty points.

In the second half however Kobe, having abondoned all hope of winning, were determined to stop the Y.C. & A.C. scoring spree and right well they did just this with a tremendous show of hard determined tackling.

The club did get one more try, when the forwards went over from a maul with Tom Wacker scoring. For the half Y.C. & A.C. could find no way through the K.R. & A.C. defence and two things became very clear. That is, since the departure of James Sterart, we do not have a number eight at all and we are sadly lacking in strong running wingers who really know their job. Brian Pinder, who incidentally played a most intelligent game, capped off the clubs scoring with an excellent drop goal.

At the final whistle K.R. & A.C. were still defending well and I think surprised a lot of people by having their line crossed only three times in the whole game. (I am of course ignoring the fourth time when Clark Hatch was over but forgot to touch down and finally lost the ball!!)

In the scrum Y.C. & A.C. ’s outstanding players were Peter Horstead (I’ve never seen him play a cleaner), Adrian Allen, Tony Daintry and Tom Wacker.

Outside we had our excellent trio of Brian Pinder, Alex Russell and Joe Broderick.

For Kobe that evergreen warrior Alan Aitkin, (Alan incidentally captained the Hong Kong Colony side when they toured Japan in the mid sixties), Robin Brown, Andy Luscombe and’ Kusaka all had an excellent game.

The outstanding player of the game award (the Y.C. & A.C. pennant) was given by our captain Jeremy Hayley Bell to Alex Russell but it must have been a difficult decision but a well deserved one. Well done Y.C. & A.C. and it was good to see such a hard game played with jittle a little less needle than usual. Thank you Peter!

Finally a word of praise to Max Baer who did a magnificent job in controlling this game.

DID YOU PLAY IN THIS MATCH FOR EITHER YC&AC OR KR&AC? IF YOU HAVE ANY GOOD STORIES TO TELL ABOUT INTERPORT RUGBY AT THIS TIME AND EMAIL THEM TO ME, I CAN ADD THEM TO A RELEVANT PAGE!