We are pleased to bring you the April 2025 newsletter. The new season and school year have finally begun.
Shogun played an international match with Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School from Australia came to Japan and played an exchange match with Shogun at BST Nagasawa Sports Ground on 6th April. Nicholas, who used to be a member of Samurai, is in this school, and this exchange match was made possible through the efforts of his parents.
After the match, Shogun members were invited by the Ricoh Black Rams to watch the Black Rams vs. Kubota Spears at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium.
On 13th April, SIRC will be holding a mini-tournament in Nagasawa, inviting Tama R&B.
The Colts will also be playing the Australian Wanderers
On Friday 18th April, the U17 Colts will also be playing the U17 Wanderers from Australia at the BST Nagasawa Ground. Kick-off is scheduled for 6.30pm.This year, several teams from New Zealand and Australia are scheduled to visit Japan in September, and the Colts and Shogun will be playing them.
Azabudai classes will have their own nicknames !
The Azabudai class didn’t have a nickname, but after collecting suggestions from members, we have decided on the following. When SIRC was first established, the British School in Tokyo parents came up with the idea of a nickname that would be familiar to Japanese people, and the first nickname to be born was ‘Samurai’. From there, it evolved into various forms, such as ‘Ninja’.
At Azabudai, we have decided to use the theme of ‘monsters’, which are popular with children, as the basis for our series of nicknames. From 2025, we will be using these nicknames for our activities, so we hope you will support us.
- Unicorns (Azabudai U6)
- Dragons (Azabudai U8)
- Godzillas (Azabudai U10)
Jr Samurai and Godzillas held their first joint practice
The U9 players who had been playing tag rugby until March have now moved up to the next grade and had their first experience of tackling. The initial coaching on tackling was given by the most experienced coach Norman, the club President. On April 6th, they had a joint practice at Showa Primary School, and on the 13th, they will practice at BST Nagasawa Ground, where they will learn the skills of tackling. This age group will be playing many games against other teams from now on, so we are looking forward to seeing them tackle!
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SIRC Coaching Seminar
On Saturday 12th April, coaches and support members will gather at the seminar room in Sangenjaya for the annual ‘Coaching Seminar’ (workshop). Here, the basic policies of SIRC coaching will be shared, and the new coaching group will discuss the policies and plans for the year.
If you are a coach or support member who has not yet registered, please register below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSb78taoPIyo73TbR98_uDrCf77m11z_OdVxSG2II2GsUrLw/viewform
Report on the end-of-season BBQ
The end-of-season BBQ was held at Kasai Rinkai Park on 23rd March, and this year it was a great success with over 300 people attending.
At this year’s BBQ, we held a big bingo event with Jamie as the MC, thanks to a donation from Mr. Masafumi Nakanishi (President and CEO of Smile Holdings Co., Ltd.), who was a member of the club in the past. https://www.smile-hld.com/.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Nakanishi for his donation to make the even more enjoyable.
At the BBQ party, former Japanese national 15-a-side representative Kiyo Tamai and Belgian national 7-a-side representative Ella Amory also participated, and they held a special session which was very popular with the children.
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Media interviews
We have received a request for coverage of our activities on 13 April from the Youtube channel ‘Rugby Quest’ . This is one of their programmes which recently covered the Setagaya Rugby School.
In the past, the SIRC was also featured on a BS Asahi TV programme in January 2022. At that time, there were 170 members, but now we have twice as many, at 350. For your reference, this is an excerpt from that programme in 2020.
