NEC continued its Lazarus-like resurgence in the 55th Company Clubs Rugby Football Championship with a 24-17 win over Ricoh at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Stadium on Sunday, the victory ensuring NEC finished top of Group C, with Ricoh also qualifying for the quarterfinals as runnerup in the group.
Nathan Strongman of Sanyo
attempts to tackle Toru Kurihara of Suntory during Sunday's
National Company Rugby Championship match. Suntory won
90-24.The big news of the day came from the other game in the so-called "group of death", in which a 74th-minute drop goal from World fullback Koji Fukuoka saw World recover from a 20-0 deficit at halftime to beat Toyota Motors 23-20. Although both sides were out of contention for a spot in the last eight of the company championship there was still plenty to play for as the losers would miss out on a spot in the new Top League that starts next September.