Japan Rugby League One 2024-25 Preview

Former Harlequins boss Tabai Matson will hunt his maiden win as Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo coach when he takes his men to Suzuka on Saturday to face Mie Honda Heat in the opening match of the fourth edition of Japan Rugby League One.

Both sides only retained Division One status after featuring in last season's Replacement Battle, and Matson will be hoping the improvements he has made to the roster – which includes the acquisition of the second most capped All Black scrumhalf in history, TJ Perenara – will be enough to steer the Black Rams clear of choppy waters.

Perenara will make his debut for the club, in what is his second stint in Japan after he appeared for NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes Osaka in the final edition of Top League. Veteran Wallaby backrower Liam Gill also debuts, after an off-season transfer from Urayasu D-Rocks, but Matson is without the 22-cap ex-England bulldozer Nathan Hughes.

The Black Rams face a new look Mie, with coach Kieran Crowley having recruited ex-Saracens flyhalf Manu Vunipola among a raft of new signings who will support the club’s established foreign test trio of Wallaby fullback Tom Banks, Los Pumas backrower Pablo Matera and Springbok second rower Franco Mostert, with the latter pair especially critical if Heat are likewise to avoid a bottom two placing, and further jeopardy in The Replacement Battle.

The Suzuka match kicks off the first afternoon of the league, being followed by the clash of the heavyweights as last season’s beaten finalists, Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, tangle with their fierce rivals, Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath, who were stopped in the semi-finals last term.

With 11 titles between them, the pair are two of the glamour clubs of the professional era in Japan, and share a long-entrenched rivalry, which has seen the Wild Knights beating Sungoliath in the finals of each of the last Top League and maiden Japan Rugby League One, amid their current five-match winning run which dates to 2019.

Although Sungoliath have featured in the playoffs in every year since their last victory over the Wild Knights, they have endured a seven-year drought since the fifth of their titles in the 2016-17 season.

Flying in the pre-season, Sungoliath are under new management, with former Brave Blossoms flyhalf Kosei Ono taking charge, having transitioned into coaching after a glittering playing career which saw him a long termer on the club’s playing roster, as well as a distinguished representative for Japan, for whom he started in the historic win over South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

After their respective injury troubles last season, Ono has been boosted by foreign test players Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa), Sean McMahon (Australia) and Sam Cane (New Zealand) all being available, with Cane going up against his former Chiefs teammate, Wild Knights backrower Lachlan Boshier, for the first time since the All Blacks’ arrival in Japan.

Saturday’s third match pits the Kwagga Smith-captained Shizuoka Blue Revs against Kobelco Kobe Steelers, for whom ex-Glasgow and Scotland hooker George Turner will make his debut.

Turner is one of two Scottish internationals who will take their maiden bow on the league’s opening weekend, with the 79-test veteran Richie Gray following suit 24 hours later, as Toyota Verblitz visit the 2022-23 champions Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay in downtown Tokyo.

While not new to Japan, the pair’s countryman Greig Laidlaw will also enjoy a first of sorts when he takes charge of his first match in the capacity of head coach, as the former Scotland captain’s Urayasu D-Rocks head to Kanagawa to play Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars.
Newly promoted D-Rocks welcome backrower Jasper Wiese to their ranks, but the South African will find a familiar face on the other side of halfway, as the tricky Springbok winger Kurt Lee Arendse steps out in the league for the first time.

Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo meet last year’s beaten semi-finalists Yokohama Canon Eagles in the section’s final match of the weekend, with much talked about All Black flyhalf Richie Mo’unga and his national teammate Shannon Frizell suiting up for the defending champions, while scrumhalf Faf de Klerk returns for the Eagles after missing the bulk of last season’s campaign due to injury.

Divisions Two & Three

Demoted Hanazono Kintetsu Liners host fellow title-contender Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi in the feature match of an
enlarged second tier, now featuring eight sides.

Hanazono won Division Two, and promotion, in the inaugural season of Japan Rugby League One, and will be hoping to repeat the trick, especially asthe architect of that success, veteran Australian flyhalf Quade Cooper, remains in their ranks.
Cooper, who is part of a formidable Hanazono bench which also features the club’s major off-season recruit, All Black and (Auckland) Blues star Akira Ioane, will go head-to-head with five-cap Englishman Freddie Burns.
Burns may have his hands full, with the 84-cap Wallaby to appear later in the afternoon, following the Japanese debut of the ex-NSW Waratahs flyhalf Will Harrison, who starts the match.

Newcomer and former Exeter Chiefs centre Tom Hendrickson also lines up for the home side. Promoted outfits Hino Red Dolphins and Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks are paired for their Division Two debuts, after their
three contests last term saw Hino win twice, while division regulars Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex and Japan Steel Kamaishi Seawaves do battle in Fukuoka.

Having crashed to five consecutive defeats to end his maiden season in Japan, Wayne Pivac and his new skipper, ex-Wallaby scrumhalf Nick Phipps, will be hoping to reprise last year’s opening day performance, when NEC Green Rockets.

Tokatsu became the first (and so far, only) side to record a regular season win over Urayasu D-Rocks. The Green Rockets open with a visit to Red Hurricanes Osaka.

Division Three begins with the latest chapter of the Hiroshima derby as Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima, who took the honours two games to one last term, tackle city rivals Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions.
Newcomers LeRIRO Fukuoka and Yakult Levins Toda debut against each other, while SECOM Sayama Rugguts make their entry hosting Kurita Water Gush Akishima.

Japan Rugby League One – Round One Fixtures (all kick offs Japan Time)

Division One

Saturday December 21
Mie Honda Heat v Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo; at Suzuka, 12.10pm
Shizuoka Blue Revs v Kobelco Kobe Steelers; at Shizuoka, 2pm
Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath v Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights; at Tokyo, 2.30pm

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars v Urayasu D-Rocks; at Kanagawa, 2.30pm
Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay v Toyota Verblitz; at Tokyo, 2.30pm
Yokohama Canon Eagles v Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo; at Kanagawa, 2.30pm

Division Two

Hanazono Kintetsu Liners v Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi; at Osaka, 2.30pm
Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex v Japan Steel Kamaishi Seawaves; at Fukuoka, 2.30pm
Sunday December 22
Hino Red Dolphins v Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks; at Gunma, 12pm
NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes Osaka v NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu; at Osaka, 2.30pm
Division Three

Saturday December 21
Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions v Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima; at Hiroshima, 1pm
Sunday December 22
LeRIRO Fukuoka v Yakult Levins Toda; at Fukuoka, 12.00pm
SECOM Sayama Rugguts v Kurita Water Gush Akishima; at Tochigi, 1pm