George Kruis and Hadleigh Parkes into the Top League Final

Panasonic Wild Knights overcame a Toyota Verblitz side to march into the Top League Final. The final score doesn't represent how close the game actually was with Verblitz in game and trailing by 6 points up until 10 minutes to play when the Panasonic side tightned the screws and made the pressure count.

The game opened with a Kenki Fukuoka try after 60 seconds but after that it was all Verblitz as they built a 15-5 lead in the next 15 minutes. Panasonic clawed their way back in the game and there was just one point splitting the sides at half time.

Rikiya Matsuda and Lionel Cronje both traded penalties in the second half as the game slowed down with both sides trying to gain as much dominance as possible while not trying to make errors.

Panasonic stepped up the pace of the game and made a few breaks that were stopped by the Verblitz scramble defence. With 20 minutes to play a Yamasawa try gave Panasonic the lead and they ran in three quick tries in the final 10 minutes as Verblitz chased the game leaving gaps in defence.

Kenki Fukuoka bagged a hat trick on the day in another fine performace from the Japanese Test Star.