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Another round of the Japan Rugby League One Division 1, but the same two log-leaders remain undefeated after Round 5: Saitama Wild Knights and Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay, and both recorded 29-point victories in their latest wins. It was a weekend with a lot of points, more than 650 across the 9 games in all three divisions, averaging 73 per match!
Another round of the Japan Rugby League One Division 1, but the same two log-leaders remain undefeated after Round 5: Saitama Wild Knights and Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay, and both recorded 29-point victories in their latest wins. It was a weekend with a lot of points, more than 650 across the 9 games in all three divisions, averaging 73 per match!
Congratulations too for the 12th All Japan Women’s Rugby Football Championship semifinal winners YOKOHAMA TKM and Yokogawa Musashino Artemi-Stars, who will contest the final.
Saturday January 17
Shizuoka Blue Revs 47-36 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara DynaBoars
Semi Radrada put in a Player of the Match (POTM) performance as they defeated the DynaBoars, in what we said in our preview would be a high-scoring clash. The Fijian scored twice, as did his teammate Valynce Te Whare to record the bonus point win, despite having Sylvian Mahuza sent off in the 10th minute.
Matt Vaega has been one of the Dynaboars' best players in attack, and he also secured a brace of tries in defeat. The second win of the season for the Shizuoka Blue Revs sees them move to 7th on the log, while the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara DynaBoars are 9th.
Tokyo Sungoliath 30-15 Mie Honda Heat
Sungoliath coach Kosei Ono wanted a response from his squad, and they did get the desired result against Mie Honda Heat, but made hard work of it. The game was squared up at 10-all at the break despite the Heat seeing two players yellow-carded in the opening period, which would not have pleased Head Coach Kieran Crowley, but it was much better than last week's opening half.
Tries from Kohei Yasuda, Kan Nakano and Kotaro Matsushima for Sungoliath got the job done as Mie Honda Heat saw Mark Abbott red-carded with a quarter of the game to go. Sam Cane, following his red card last week, made amends in a POTM outing.
We thought the fixture would yield a high number of points, but the poor game actually resulted in the fewest points in the round.
Urayasu D-Rocks 27-38 Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo
Former (Wellington) Hurricanes Tjay Clarke, already on 4 tries following last week’s hat-trick, scored two more in the win for Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo as the player was awarded POTM for his performance in the 27-38 victory.
The loss ended Urayasu D-Rocks’ run as they dropped one place to 6th while the defending champions remained in 4th.
Yokohama Canon Eagles 21-50 Saitama Wild Knights
Jack Cornelsen scored twice in the first half to secure a POTM award, and captain Atsushi Sakate scored his 7th of the season as Saitama Wild Knights maintained their winning streak this season.
The win condemned Yokohama Canon Eagles to a loss at home and maintained their winless start under Head Coach Leon MacDonald. It means they now have the club’s worst-ever run of defeats and the 18th successive loss to the Wild Knights.
Two yellow cards to Yu Tamura and Takato Okabe didn't help their cause, while the Wild Knights Springbok Damien de Allende scored his first try in his second appearance of the season.
Kobelco Kobe Steelers 67-21 Black Rams Tokyo
On a weekend commemorating the 31st anniversary of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the hosts put in some shift as captain second rower Brodie Retallick scored 4 tries (his 4th straight game scoring) and fellow Kiwi, former (Waikato) Chiefs flyhalf Bryn Gatland, scored 27 points (including two tries) for Kobelco Kobe Steelers to defeat BlackRams Tokyo and halt their hopes of three wins in a row.
Retallick is now the joint-top try scorer in JRLO Division 1, which has helped Dave Rennie’s side to third on the table, and the All Black has 30 tries from 54 appearances since his arrival in Kansai.
Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay 39-10 Toyota Verblitz
Another win for Frans Ludeke’s men sees them top Division 1 with a super points differential to the Wild Knights, while Toyota Verblitz look to be in another bottom-of-the-table scrap season. It was the Kubota Spears’ 22-game win streak at the venue, and they easily justified their favourites tag coming into the round. Steve Hansen’s side has lost its last four matches, conceding 160 points.
It was a South African-flavoured start for the victors, with Tyler Paul, Merwe Olivier, Rikus Pretorius, and Gerhard van den Heever scoring their first four tries, and they led 32-0 at the break.
Mark Telea was yellow-carded in the second period, but the only additional score for Kubota came from a penalty try.
Saturday January 17
Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi 52-54 Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves; at Aichi
RedHurricanes Osaka 35-40 Hanazono Kintetsu Liners; at Osaka
Sunday January 18
Hino Red Dolphins 14-24 Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks; at Tokyo (AGF Field)
While the Hanazono Kintetsu Liners kept their undefeated season intact, they were given a scare. They led 26-0 by halftime and were 40-7 up heading into the final quarter before RedHurricanes Osaka scored 28 unanswered points! Springbok Manie Libbok was the POTM
Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves, coached by ex-Wallaby backrower Toutai Kefu, are third after they upset defending Division Two champions Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi in a high-scoring match in Aichi. The game saw 16 tries and 5 yellow cards, three of those yellows given to Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi in the final 8 minutes.
This allowed the winners to score the winning try to claim the win in the 86th minute, thanks to Kohei Ishigaki's try and Former (Otago) Highlanders flyhalf Mitchel Hunt’s winning conversion as he was POTM.
Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks also maintained their perfect record this campaign, beating Hino Red Dolphins away from home. Despite Billy Burns getting yellow-carded in the first half, the side led 14-7 at the break and ran out 24-14 victors.
Saturday January 17
Kurita Water Gush Akishima 24-59 SAYAMA SECOM RUGGUTS; at Tokyo (AGF Field)
Sunday January 18
Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions 45-45 Le RIRO Fukuoka; at Yamaguchi
The Rugguts big win away from home sees them stay within the top two in the division. The match was fairly even at the break, with the victors only 20-17 ahead, but three tries in the first 15 minutes of the second half sealed the win as Wycliff Palu coached Kurita Water Gush Akishima were on the losing side.
Former New Zealand national provincial championship player Daniel Waite bagged 19 points in the win.
Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions played out another high-scoring game in a 45-all draw after they had a slender lead of 26-24 over Le RIRO Fukuoka. Even a Kentaro Iwanaga hat-trick for the hosts wasn't enough as LeRIRO Fukuoka tied it up with less than 5 minutes in the match.