RUGBY JERSEY – Pre-season Match: Toyota Verblitz vs Tokyo Suntory Sangorias

(written by Azul, Decemmber 15th, 2021)

A pre-season match was held between the Toyota Verblitz and the Tokyo Suntory Sangoliath before the new Rugby League, League One will be held next year (January 7th). This match was between two strong teams that have both won the Japanese Championship, so a good match is expected.

And this week’s match was held at Nagara River Stadium in Gifu Prefecture. So, it was a 400km one-way trip from Tokyo to Gifu.

Today’s travel route was Hachioji → Shin-Yokohama → Nagoya → Gifu. At 400 km one way, it’s quite a long trip. We left home at 8:00 a.m. and arrived there at 11:00 a.m. The Shinkansen was very fast.

We left Shin-Yokohama at 9:16a.m. Then, I arrived at Nagoya at 10:39a.m.

Next, I transferred to a regular train on the Tokaido Main Line, the destination was six stops away. We arrived at Gifu Station at 11:00a.m.

It took only 20 minutes from Nagoya Station by train. It was my first visit to Gifu City. The game was scheduled to start at 1:10 p.m., so I spent some time sightseeing in Gifu City.

As you can see in the photo, the area near Gifu Station is lined with high-rise condominiums and has a city-like atmosphere. However, Gifu City is also a castle town, so there are many historical buildings, shrines, and temples. Next time, I would like to stay here and enjoy sightseeing.

The golden statue of Nobunaga Oda shines brilliantly in front of Gifu Station. It really stands out. Perhaps reflecting the times, he is wearing a mask to protect himself from the new corona virus.

Standing on the top of the mountain overlooking the entire town of Gifu is the Gifu Castle. I’ve had the chance to see it many times in TV historical dramas, but seeing it for the first time, I was very impressed.

The photo above was taken from the stadium, but even though I was in the stadium, I felt like I was being overlooked. I had more than two hours before the game started, so I thought I would buy something to commemorate my visit to Gifu, and ended up buying a lottery ticket. On the shinkansen, I read an article on the Internet that gave some tips on how to win the lottery. The one that stuck in my memory was.

According to the staff at the lottery booth, people who buy lottery tickets by saying, “Well, I don’t think I’ll win,” will never win. It’s important to buy with the intention of winning.

I decided to do a search on my smartphone using the three keywords “Gifu City,” “lottery,” and “win”. I found a lottery ticket booth in front of the Don Quijote shopping center in the city, which is famous in Gifu Prefecture, so I went there to buy one. I heard that it was a famous lottery ticket office that had once produced a first prize winner of one billion yen. It took me 20 minutes to get there on foot, but it was indeed a famous store. When I lined up, there was already a line. If I win one billion yen, I would like to go to all the rugby matches in the world and watch them.

Now, I took a city bus to the stadium. This bus also has a picture of Nobunaga Oda’s wife, Princess Nohime on it. It took 30 minutes from the station to the stadium. Finally, we arrived at the Nagara River Stadium. The stadium is located very close to the bus stop, so you won’t get lost.

The Nagara River Stadium came into view. This stadium is used as the home stadium of FC Gifu of the J2 soccer league. It has a capacity of 26,109 people. Today’s match was planned to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the founding of the Gifu Shimbun. According to the organizers, the number of visitors today was about 6,200. I remember that after RWC 2019, the Chukyo area gained a lot of new fans. I remember that before the new Corona, we had over 30,000 fans for the opening match at Toyota Stadium. It is a pity that without the new Corona, there would have been an unprecedented rugby boom.

The stadium is quite magnificent. The fact that you can see Gifu Castle in the distance is wonderful. Both teams have assembled their squads for today’s match with a focus on young players.

The main big names who will not be playing today were

TOYOTA: Kazuki Himeno (Japan national team), Kaito Shigeno (Japan national team), Taiji Takahashi (Japan national team candidate), Etzebeth (South Africa national team), Willie le Roux (South Africa national team)

SUNTORY: Yutaka Nagare (Japan national team), Ryodo Nakamura (Japan national team), Shogo Nakano (Japan national team), Tevita Tatafu (Japan national team), Damian McKenzie (New Zealand national team)

Of these, I was quite disappointed not to see Etzveth and McKenzie. Let’s wait for the opening of the tournament.

First, a brief introduction of the two teams.

Toyota Verblitz: Finished 3rd in the top league last season, aiming to become the first champion of the League One with the addition of South African national team member Etzebeth for the 2022 season.

Tokyo Suntory Sangorias: The runners-up in the Top League last season, they will be aiming to become the first League One champion this season with the addition of New Zealand’s Damien McKenzie.

Let’s kick off.

Suntory’s CTB Kerevi broke away and scored a try right away. The world’s strongest CTB Kerevi mixed in with their mainly young players, showing the difference in power. The conversion kick succeeded, and Suntory led 0-7.

As it was a preseason match, I expected the two teams to trade points as their defensive networks were not well developed. However, contrary to our expectations, both teams persisted in front of the goal and the first half ended with Suntory holding the early lead, 0-7.

Then came halftime. Shinya, a rugby comedian from the Teikyo University Rugby Club, appeared on the field.

He also started appearing on TV, and has become quite well known to the public. He made the stands laugh with his light-hearted talk show. At the end of his performance, he made a wave and circled the ground as fast as he could. As expected, he was out of breath by the end.

I was also surprised to see that he acted as a line judge in the game after this all-out sprint. Well, Shinya is working hard.

Then the game went into the second half.

Even in the second half, Suntory’s defensive network was as ironclad as ever. It looks like Suntory is going to be strong again this year. However, as it was a pre-season match, the team made a lot of changes of players, and as expected, there were some holes in the ironclad defense. Toyota’s CTB Nakano scored a try and the team fought back. The final score was 14-26 in favor of Suntory. Both teams were missing some of their main players, but Suntory’s SH Naoto Saito( Japan National Team) came on in the second half to excite the crowd.

The game was over. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to watch a working men’s league game live, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t wait for the new league to start in January.

Then I went straight to my day trip. Gifu is a city with a wonderful atmosphere that really gives you a sense of history. It would be a shame to leave it like this.

The game ended around 15:10p.m. The shinkansen departed from Nagoya at 5:06 p.m., so I had enough time to have dinner on the way.

The photo above is a LEGO BLOCK of Gifu Castle at the tourist information center in front of the station, and even though it was December, it was a warm day to watch the game.

I took this photo in front of Nagoya station just before boarding the bullet train. This is the second time I’ve been to Nagoya. Last time, I came here to support the soccer team. I bought some food in front of the station and boarded the Shinkansen. The next game is scheduled for December 18. I will be watching the quarterfinal match of the National University Rugby Championship at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo. I hope for a good game and good weather.

＊＊　Jerseys Collection 51　＊＊

Rugby France national team jersey. Sold at E-BAY for 3,980 yen plus 4,000 yen for shipping. Personally, I think there are many masterpieces in the adidas jerseys that were worn just before Lecoq, the current sponsor of the French national team jersey. The color of this jersey is a subdued dark blue, so you’ll have a lot of opportunities to wear it as everyday wear.