Fun With Touch (FWT) // Touch Rugby, Tokyo, Japan

The touch World Cup is finally underway. Japan sent four teams; Mens open, Womens open, Mens 30s, Mens 35s. We are supporting four players that have regularly been involved with Fun with Touch – two in the Men’s open and two in the Men’s 30s teams.

Here is an update of the each of the teams:

Mens Open
After the first preliminary round, Japan topped their Pool C with strong wins against Germany, England and Ireland. The results were:

Japan 13 – 0 Germany
Japan 12 – 4 England
Japan 7 – 1 Ireland

Brett scored a hat trick against Germany and has scored five tries in total!!

By winning all three games, the Mens Open team has advanced to the Cup Group. The schedule and results for the following games are:

Day Two: Thursday 23rd
Japan 8 – 7 Cook Islands
Japan 8 – 3 Scotland

Brett is keeping with his try scoring form with 9 for the tournament.
On the same day, NZ beat Australia 5-4 and the Cook Islands drew with South Africa 4-4.

Day Three: Friday 24th
Japan 3 – 20 New Zealand
Japan 1 – 20 Australia
Japan 10 – 5 France

Day Four: Saturday 25th
Japan 2 – 4 South Africa
Japan 10 – 6 England

Day Five: Sunday 26th
Semi final
Japan 1 – 15 New Zealand

Bronze Medal match
Japan 5 – 8 South Africa

In the Grand Final, Australia (7) def New Zealand (6)

Brett was the second highest points scorer in the Japan side with 11 tries.

Mens 30s
The Men’s 30s division has 10 teams involved. They play each team once, with the top four advancing to the semi finals.

The results and fixtures are as follows:

Day one: Wednesday 22nd
Japan 9 – 1 Wales
Japan 9 – 7 Scotland
Japan 7 – 3 Germany

Day Two: Thursday 23rd
Japan 2- 14 Australia
Japan 4 – 10 South Africa

Day Three: Friday 25th
Japan 3 – 3 Fiji
Japan 13 – 0 Luxembourg
Japan 6 – 5 England

Day Four: Saturday 26th
Japan 6 – 8 France

Japan and Fiji were tied on points, but Fiji had the better points differential so they advances to the semi finals while Japan played off for 5th and 6th.

5th/6th Play off

Japan 7 – 8 South Africa

The 3rd and 4th play off was won by France as they defeated Fiji (8-4). In the final, Australia beat England (18-2).

Weesang top scored for the M30s with 10 tries in total. Glen ended up with 5 tries.

Womens Open
The womens team is 3rd in Pool B. They beat Austria (8-0), but have lost to Singapore (0-9) and New Zealand (0-13) on Day one. Day Two saw the Japan Womens team in the bowl group and played Austria again beating them 9-1.

Day Three: Friday 24th
Japan 9 – 2 Scotland 30s
Japan 4 – 5 Scotland
Japan 3 – 2 England 30s

Day Four: Saturday 25th
Japan 9 – 1 Germany

Day five: Sunday 26th
Bowl Group Semi Final
Japan 11 – 2 Austria

Bowl Group Final
Japan 6 – 3 Scotland

Singapore (5) def England (4) for the Bronze medal
Australia (5) def New Zeland (3) for the Gold medal

Mens 35s
The M35s are in Pool C against France and Switzerland. They beat Switzerland (5-4) before losing to France (5-6).
Day two game the M35s won against Scotland (7-3), but lost to the US (4-6).

Day three games saw the M35s defeat Switzerland (7-4), draw with Spain (6-6) and beat Ireland (10-4).

Their final game on day four was an 8-6 win against the US.

Australia (11) def. South Africa (6) for the gold medal.

To keep up with the Japan teams progress, click here: http://www.touchworldcup2011.co.uk/fixtures-results/club:japan/

This weekend the Japan representative squads fly off to Scotland in preparation for the Touch World Cup. Japan is sending four teams:

- Mens open
- Womens open
- Mens over 30s
- Mens over 35s

We have four FWT players involved, two in the Mens Open team and two in the Mens over 30s.

The tournament opens on June 22nd. The Japan Mens open squad will be playing three games agains the US, England and PNG on day one. The results on day one will depend on the opposition they play on the following day.
As for the other three teams, we have not been able to confirm their playing schedule.

We wish all these teams the best and hope they bring back medals!

Thank you everyone who made donations to the Japan squads participating in the Touch World Cup. We managed to raise over JPY 50,000 from personal contributions and had two companies make donations of JPY 30,000 each.

All of the donations will be shared amongst the four participating FWT players!

On May 22nd, New Zealand will be hosting a global telethon from 9am to 9pm (NZ time) to raise money for the Christchurch Earthquake Disaster. Please come and join in for the live Japan event to send your message of support back to New Zealand.
The goal is, live from the event center, for each person to contact 5 friends either in Japan, NZ or any part of the World and get them to pledge 1,000yen (or the equivalent).

Details are as follows:

What: Rise up Christchurch Global Telethon
When: Sunday 22nd May, 11am to 3pm
Where: Wakanui, Azabu Juban (http://www.wakanui.jp/access/)
Entry fee: 2,000yen (all proceeds to the telethon)

** The entry fee includes a meal and one free drink (Cash bar thereafter). Additional food can be purchased for JPY 1,000.

During the event, there will be raffles, live entertainment, as well as `not alone T-Shirts` for sale (http://www.jsa.org.nz/article.php/not-alone-tshirt-en).

The event is limited to 60 people. Time is short so please RSVP as soon as you can. Any further questions about the event, please contact Mark directly at: mark@keajapan.com.

There are four FWT players in the 2011 World Cup squads who will compete in Scotland in June. Its a great achievement and we wish them well for the tournament. The players who are in the squads are as as follows:

Japan Men’s: Brett, Shigeru
Men’s over 30s: Glen, Weesang

Although this is an achievement we are all proud of, the down side of this is that they have to pay their way to Scotland themselves as touch is an amateur sport. Some of the costs include the return flight, accommodation, uniforms/entry fees, food & drink etc.
After everything is done, they will each pay over JPY 400,000, which is no small amount of money. However, to counter the burden on the players, the new JTA administration has come up with a scheme where you can sponsor a player for 3,000 yen, and companies can sponsor a player for 30,000 yen. In return people who sponsor a player will get their name on the Japan WC team website.

If you are keen to contribute, there are application forms for you to complete. Please send an email to funwithtouch@gmail.com and we will send you the documentation accordingly.

As an FYI, there are also company sponsorship opportunities — 200,000 yen for a small logo on the uniform, and 500,000 yen for a big logo.

FWT is going to re-start the season this weekend. We had a bit of difficulty with finding a new ground, but now we have one and so we are ready to go! We will play in Edogawa-ku, and the closest station is (JR) Koiwa on the Chuo Sobu line. To view a map of the location, see below:

View Larger Map

Please note that even though there are bathroom facilities, there is no changing room so we encourage you all to come prepared.