Official Preview - Japan Rugby League One (Round Twelve)

Forty-two days ago, Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo got together for a thrilling party from
which they could not be separated.
Saturday will see the two best teams in Japan Rugby League One – with 12 Japanese club titles between them since 2003
– go at it again in a match which could decide top seeding for May’s six-team playoff series.
Brave Lupus, the defending champions, have strung together four wins – all by close margins – since the 28-28 draw at
Kumagaya, with January’s 34-28 defeat by fourth-placed Shizuoka Blue Revs their only loss from the last 20 games since
the Wild Knights prevailed 36-24 in the regular season last term.
With All Black flyhalf Richie Mo’unga in top form after having scored his sixth and seventh tries for the season during last
weekend’s 33-22 win over Toyota Verblitz, and winger Jone Naikabula – the Wild Knights’ tormentor from last year’s final
– leading the try-scoring rankings with 12 from 11 outings, Toshiba have plenty of reasons to approach the game with a
quiet sense of confidence.
Conversely, the Wild Knights enter the contest in unusual territory.
Not only are they coming off just their second on-field defeat in four editions of League One, Saitama are also facing an
opponent whom they haven’t beaten at their last two attempts, which is the first time since the 2018-19 season that they
have entered a game under those terms.
Injuries have not helped the cause so far, with star fullback/flyhalf Takuya Yamasawa yet to appear this year, Wallaby
winger Marika Koroibete having just returned, while outstanding breakdown pilferer Lachlan Boshier is also missing, and
in a race to make the finals after checking into the casualty ward following the 46-32 win over Kobelco Kobe Steelers
three weeks ago.

Springbok inside centre Damien de Allende struck trouble last weekend, having to leave the field with a dislocated finger
during the loss to Shizuoka, but while the injury hasn’t proved long-term, and he has been named to start, his regular
centre partner and Brave Blossoms star Dylan Riley is another on the absentee list.
But while the Wild Knights’ aura of invincibility seems to be dissipating, with both Brave Lupus and Kubota Spears
Funabashi Tokyo-Bay counting themselves unlucky not to have won at Kumagaya this season, the latter are fast fashioning
a cloak of home impregnability themselves.
Saturday sees the third-placed side welcome Yokohama Canon Eagles to Spears Edoriku Field in Western Tokyo where
Kubota have won their last 21 matches.

Although the Wild Knights and Brave Lupus have shown the way this season, the Spears have quietly worked away, having
won just once less than the front-runners, while building up a similar level of momentum to that which swept them to a
maiden title two seasons ago.
Frans Ludeke’s men showed their adaptability and resilience last week, flipping a 22-0 deficit in the final 35 minutes
against Urayasu D-Rocks, after having been a distant second performance wise for most of the minutes before.
The turnaround was an encore of last month’s meeting with Yokohama, where the Eagles took a 12-3 lead into halftime,
but were eventually run down 30-22 as Kubota recorded its third straight win in the rivalry, with Spears winger Haratoa
Vailea scoring three tries
Despite conceding a try from an intercept early in the second half last Friday, flyhalf Bernard Foley’s performance mirrored
that of his side, with the Wallaby later setting up two tries as the Spears switched up a gear.
Foley and Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx have both built into the season nicely, with the latter man-of-the-match
against D-Rocks where he scored his 29th try from 38 appearances in the club’s orange jersey.
The sixth-placed Eagles, who are flatlining after having won just once in their last five, haven’t been helped for their date
with the Spears by the absence of star Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk.
If Kubota are trending upwards, so too are Tabai Matson’s Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo, with the ex-Harlequins head coach
having done an impressive job after a slow start to his maiden season in Japan Rugby League One.

After struggling to go the distance in several of their first seven outings, where they lost on three occasions after having
established halftime leads, the Black Rams – led by some inspiration from All Black scrumhalf TJ Perenara – have turned
their season around, rising from 11th three rounds ago to eighth, just six points outside of the playoff positions.
They travel to IAI Stadium Nihondaira where they will face a Shizuoka engine that shows no sign of cooling, having
rebounded from a dramatic misfire during a 62-14 hiding from Kubota, to collect wins against Mie Honda Heat as well as
the Wild Knights.
Just eight points separated the sides when they met earlier in the season as the Blue Revs prevailed 32-24, but with the
Black Rams riding a wave of momentum arguably even greater than that of themselves, and having won on two of their
last three visits, Shizuoka’s experienced coach Yuichirio Fujii and skipper Kwagga Smith will have been working hard to
make sure their players come down from the high of last week to turn their focus towards this assignment.
Glen Delaney has a similar challenge with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars after they threw out the
form book to crush Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath 34-22 at Kyoto on Sunday.
The Dynaboars’ fourth win of the campaign, which was spearheaded by 24 points from centre Matt Vaega, including a
hattrick of tries, lifted Sagamihara out of the relegation zone, and three points above their next opponent, Toyota Verblitz,
whom they beat 44-40 earlier in the season.
That was a keenly contested battle, with Verblitz just missing after they roared home from 41-7 down following a dismal
opening half where they conceded six tries.
Defence has been a major issue for both sides, who have the second and third worst rankings in the league.
With so much at stake, especially for Verblitz who could face a stiff task climbing out of the relegation zone if they lose,
the ability to prevent tries rather than scoring them will be decisive.
One of four sides with four wins for the season, Honda’s momentum has stalled, with heavy defeats in their last two
outings, where they shipped a combined 91 points against Shizuoka (44-14) and Kobe (47-5).
Kieran Crowley’s men had gone back-to-back against the Dynaboars and Eagles in the two weeks prior, after having
become Urayasu’s only ‘victim’ to date, following a 31-26 defeat in Tokyo.
Now 13 points from safety, D-Rocks are rapidly approaching last chance saloon, but they produced their best 40 minutes

of the season against Kubota, which will offer encouragement against Heat, who they have dominated in recent clashes.
Despite having missed the chance to enter the top six last weekend, on the first occasion this season that they have been
able to field their star test trio of winger Cheslin Kolbe and backrowers Sam Cane and Sean McMahon together, Sungoliath
remain in playoffs contention, just five points from sixth place, although they have a tough run home, with four of the
current top five to play in their final seven games.
This includes Sunday’s opponent, fifth-placed Kobe, who continue to climb in the standings despite an agonizing 31-29
defeat against Suntory last month., their sixth straight loss to their western Tokyo rivals.
Dave Rennie’s side cut loose against Honda last time running in seven tries during their biggest win of the season, and
they now rank first on the number of tries scored this season, tied with Toshiba on 57.
This is 18 more than Suntory, whom they outscored five-tries-to-four at their last meeting.
Despite the impressive attacking numbers, it has been their habits without the ball that have been the problem, with the
Steelers the joint second most penalised team in the competition.
This is a vulnerability the ex-Wallaby coach will need to fix, especially facing the competition’s second highest point scorer,
whose accuracy off the tee has already hurt them once this season.
Suntory flyhalf Mikiya Takamoto has gathered 126 points so far, 11 of which came against Kobe where his five goals from
six attempts proved the point of difference in the game.
Denying the 24-year-old sharpshooter opportunities will be key if Kobe are to further the gap between themselves and
the non-playoffs positions.