What a difference a year makes.
Last year Waseda University beat Kanto Gakuin University to win the final of the University Rugby Football Championship at Tokyo's National Stadium on a warm day that resembled a Six Nations game in Paris.
Kanto Gakuin players celebrate after winning the University Rugby Football Championship final at Tokyo's National Stadium.
One year on, the two teams met again (the third consecutive year they have contested the final) on a day that had more in common with an NFL playoff game at Green Bay's Lambeau Field.
But this time around it was Kanto that was victorious, beating Waseda 33-7 to claim the 40th University Championship, in a game that was to a great extent controlled by the Arctic-like weather.
As with last year's fixture, the game was always going to be a battle between the speed and all round 15-man game of Waseda and the strength and physicality of the Kanto pack led by Japan World Cup prop Ryo Yamamura, but while the sunshine and Parisian atmosphere of 2003 suited Waseda, the bitter cold and snow flurries were more to Kanto's liking.
"The weather certainly suited us more than Waseda," said Kanto Gakuin assistant coach Mike Cron. "But having said that we were still able to score some great tries by our backs in the second half."
The first half had seen the two teams cancel one another out, with Kanto Gakuin's defense holding firm every time Waseda looked like penetrating and, amazingly, for a game that traditionally is full of points, the two teams went into the break level at 0-0.
The second half started out as the first, with Waseda looking the more threatening, but the Kanto defensive line held firm and in the 48th minute the deadlock was finally broken.
Seiichi Shimomura picked a superb line through a tired-looking Waseda backline and raced over from 40 meters out. The center added the conversion and was on target five minutes later when his midfield partner, Kentaro Kawadu, scored a try that summed up the game in a nutshell.
With Waseda on the attack and looking dangerous, Kawadu charged down a poor grubber-kick from Waseda captain Tatsuhiko Otao and regathered before racing away to touch down 65 meters up field.
Waseda seemed to have run out of ideas and Go Aruga took full advantage.
The Kanto fullback showed tremendous strength, speed and vision to put Tomoki Kitagawa away in the 58th minute and was again involved as Kanto killed the game as a contest when hooker Mitsugu Yamamoto powered over to put his side 26-0 up.
"You can't teach that type of vision," said Cron of Aruga, who has been slated by many to follow his father, Ken, into the Japan team.
It was no more than Aruga deserved when he followed up a clever kick from Hiroaki Tainaka to score Kanto's fifth try, and the score certainly delighted his many fans in the crowd of 30,000 -- a somewhat disappointing number but understandable given the adverse conditions.
Waseda finally broke the Kanto defensive line in the 79th minute when Shinsuke Ikegame scored following some quick hands by Otao, but it was nothing more than a consolation.
As the T-shirts worn by the Kanto Gakuin players proclaimed, as they did their lap of honor, it was a Victorious return to champion.
College competition
The college All-Star teams of Japan and South Korea will play each other in an international friendly once a year with the first of the matches to be held March 21 in South Korea.
The Japan East Rugby Football Union's decision to form a special team for the event came in response to a request from the South Korean side, which is hoping to give its players more experience on the field despite having a limited number of teams in its league.
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