Japan Rugby League One 2024-25 Round Eleven Preview

Division One

There might not be a photocopier in sight, but company business will still be on the agenda when Yokohama Canon Eagles and Ricoh Black Rams clash in Japan Rugby League One’s quaintly named ‘Photocopy’ derby.
With both clubs’ corporate backers involved in the office supply industry, the bragging rights always mean a little bit more when the two teams meet, and Saturday will be no different when they come together in downtown Tokyo.
While the current league positions suggest each have reached this stage of the season with different targets – Canon to return to the playoffs for the third straight year, while Ricoh aim for mid-table security – such circumstances are seldom a decisive factor in derbies, where a win can ‘make’ a season.
This is especially so for the Black Rams who added to their recent run of good form before the bye by taking down Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars 22-7 to climb to ninth on the standings.
With 11 points from the last three games, after having achieved only five in the opening seven, ex-Harlequins coach Tabai Matson’s side are one of the form teams of the competition.
Black Rams scrumhalf and skipper TJ Perenara is also one of the league’s form players, which will make the All Blacks’ head-to-head clash with his Springbok counterpart Faf de Klerk potentially a game-breaker.
Although Yokohama’s 33-22 win over Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath in the last round snapped a sequence of three straight defeats, while also providing some breathing space ahead of their chief playoff rivals, the gap between their current fifth ranking and the seventh-placed Sungoliath is not great, with the latter, and six-placed Kobelco Kobe Steelers, arguably facing easier matches over the weekend.
After surrendering a winning position in the last quarter against the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, Kobe could find an inconsistent Mie Honda Heat side more to their liking, although coach Dave Rennie is sure to be drumming into his
charges that this year’s edition is a vastly superior vintage than the hapless Heat outfit his men routed 80-15 on the opening weekend of last term.
Kobe skipper Brodie Retallick scored the first try of last season’s romp and remains one of his sides’ biggest goal-line threats, with only in-form winger Ataata Moekiola having scored more than the six tries the All Black second rower has contributed to the Steelers this year.
Honda were denied a third win on end last time by Shizuoka, but Kwagga Smith’s fourth-placed Blue Revs now face the toughest regular season challenge there is in League One, trying to see off a Wild Knights combination that has been boosted by the return of Wallaby winger Marika Koroibete, who will make his first appearance of the campaign after overcoming a hand injury.
In Shizuoka’s favour is the fact that they have done it before, with their 44-25 win at Kumagaya two seasons ago the only time that the current front-runners have been beaten on the field during the regular season in the four years since League One began.
Although that defeat came 27 matches ago, Wild Knights coach Robbie Deans will be aware that the Blue Revs have been kryptonite for his team, with Shizuoka having twice taken Saitama to the wire – and been beaten by injury time tries – before they recorded what remains the biggest upset in the league’s history.
Shizuoka’s 34-28 win over Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo in January would also get a look in if a roll call of league upsets was compiled, but Toyota Verblitz will arguably achieve a bigger one if they can get the better of the defending champions on Saturday at Aichi.
While Steve Hansen’s side extricated themselves from the relegation zone after their 36-31 win over Urayasu D-Rocks, the ex-All Black boss does not have a good coaching record against his former captain from their time with Canterbury in New Zealand’s national provincial championship, Todd Blackadder.
Last year’s 28-12 defeat against Toshiba was a more respectable outcome than the 63-25 walloping Toyota received from one of their two meetings the year before, but it did extend the ‘master’s’ run of defeats against his ‘apprentice’ to four,
with the dominance beginning when Brave Lupus prevailed 53-31 on a crazy afternoon during the league’s maiden edition.
Round Eleven kicks off tomorrow night when Urayasu D-Rocks host Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay, with both sides returning to duty after having begun the second half of the regular season with defeats.

Kubota coach Frans Ludeke will have been a frustrated man after his side let slip the match against their successors on
the title-winning Dias, Brave Lupus, with the Spears twice surrendering the lead during the second half.
Even though their defeat could have long-term ramifications in the pursuit of a top two finish, and its accompanying bye
in the first weekend of the playoffs, the South African’s issues pale in comparison to those of his Scottish counterpart
Greig Laidlaw, with D-Rocks’ freshman coach now facing a nine-point gap between his side and relegation-series ‘evasion’.
Urayasu’s cause has not been helped by the loss of star fullback Israel Folau, whose career in Japan has been blighted
once again by a season ending injury, meaning he has appeared just six times across the last two seasons.
In dual code star’s absence, D-Rocks will unveil a new fullback on Friday, with former Leinster and Ireland age-grade
representative Christopher Cosgrave taking his maiden bow in the league.
After taking seven weeks to earn a win, D-Rocks have now lost their last three, which is the same number of consecutive
defeats as the 11th placed Dynaboars, who tackle Sungoliath in Sunday’s only game.
As part of League One’s commitment to expand the game’s footprint nationwide, the match is being hosted at Kyoto,
which is the ancient capital of Japan.

Divisions Two & Three

A date Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi has been waiting for since December 29 has finally come around on Saturday as
first plays second in the most significant day yet of the Division Two season.
Having opened with an impressive win at Hanazono Kintesu Liners’ expense, the Shuttles built up a 22-8 halftime lead
over Red Hurricanes Osaka – whom they had routed 71-12 last term – only to surrender that advantage during a
disastrous second period where they were held scoreless while the visitors piled on 22 unanswered points to complete a
30-22 win.

The win was the second of four that the Kansai-based side stitched together to open the season, although they have since
dropped to second after last week’s shock 35-24 defeat by an inspired Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves on an emotional
day in Iwate for the 2011 Tsunami remembrance match.
Ominously, as far as their next assignment goes, the Red Hurricanes have now lost two of the last three, going down 

against the teams ranked second and third from bottom of the table.
In the blue corner, the Shuttles have moved on from that defeat on the second weekend, winning their last five by an
average of 40 points per match, which is a serious statement of intent as they bid to go beyond their disappointing
performance in the Replacement Battles from the last two seasons.
Quade Cooper’s Kintetsu still have end-of-season promotion at the top of their priorities, despite a slow start to the
campaign from which they are only just recovering.
The division’s second round offers the chance of redemption, and a shot at qualifying for the promotion/relegation series,
but they have little room to manoeuvre trailing second by 11 points, which makes reversing their defeat against Shimizu
Koto Blue Sharks a non-negotiable in Saturday’s rematch between the teams.
Wayne Pivac’s NEC Green Rockets also face the same opponent back-to-back but will head to Fukuoka for their date with
Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex full of confidence after flattening their rivals 48-7 when they met two weeks ago.

Fresh from their second win of the season, the Seawaves host bottom-placed Hino Red Dolphins, looking to go back-to-
back in home matches for the first time since League One began.

Eleven points separated the two sides at the end of January when Hino achieved its only win to date, 35-24, with
Saturday’s result likely to make it hard for the loser to avoid finishing bottom of the pile.
Division Three features just one match, with Sunday’s clash between Le RIRO Fukuoka and Kurita Water Gush Akishima
completing a round begun last weekend, when Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima maintained their lead at the top following a
42-10 win over Yakult Levins Toda.

Whatever happens from here, the SkyActivs have already reached a significant moment in their history, with their eighth
win of the season equalling the number of games the club had won across the first three editions of the league.