Japan show improvement against NZ Barbarians

The first match was played in the Womens Division and saw a much improved performance from the Japanese. They certainly had learned from the first two days and came out in a very confident manner. At half time the score was three touchdowns each.

The second half produced some very good Touch with the lead changing many times. Japan was right in the hunt with five minutes to go! However in the closing minutes the NZ Invitational team produced a couple of Touchdowns to eventually run out winners with the final score 8-6.

This exciting match was followed by the Mens Division where the Japanese approached the game with a very confident attitude and produced some excellent Touch.

Japan were leading in the Touchdown race with a supreme effort by the NZ Invitational team to bring the score to three all at half time. The second half commenced in the same manner as the first with Japan leading the way again. It was very obvious that the Japanese team had gained a lot of confidence from their matches against Australia and New Zealand and had brought that confidence into this match.

The lead changed on a few occasions however like in the earlier match the NZ Invitational team ran out eventual winners by scoring the winning Touchdown in the last minute of the match. The final score was 7-6.

Both these matches will contribute to the growing confidence within the Japanese Tour group and the spectators will be looking forward to an exciting day today.