Japan Rugby League One Preview

It’s a big weekend for Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath. A constant in Top League and Japan Rugby League One playoffs since the inception of a nationwide round robin competition 22 years ago, Suntory have not featured among the top four sides just three times, most recently in the 2015-16 season.

Yet the five-time champions are this year tiptoeing across a precipice, beaten in their last three and in danger of being cut adrift in the race for the sixth and final invitation to the end-of-season championship ‘party’ with time running out. This adds to the pressure for Saturday’s clash with Shizuoka BlueRevs, who will be out for revenge after Suntory’s convincing 33-14 win earlier in the season
At the time, the result seemed perfectly normal; the perennial heavyweights putting the upstarts in their place, while stretching their unbeaten run against the BlueRevs to a remarkable 15 games.

Only this has been anything but a ‘normal’ season for Shizuoka, who have already won three matches more than their previous best return since League One began and still have a minimum of six to play.
Significantly the top two on the leaderboard, Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo and Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights have both been taken down by the BlueRevs.

And it has been a genuinely team effort. So much so, that they have kept winning despite star winger Malo Tuitama – last year’s leading try-scorer and this season's early pace-setter – not having scored in five games, while the 60 points from the BlueRevs’ leading point-scorer, utility back Sam Greene, rates just 10th among the individual rankings.

The Shizuoka utility back trails Suntory’s Mikiya Takamoto, the competition’s leading point-scorer, by 59 points, but while their flyhalf has provided ever presence excellence, it has been those who have not been there that is hurting Sungoliath. Their trio of internationals, Springbok winger Cheslin Kolbe, Australian backrower Sean McMahon and his counterpart and ex-All Blacks captain Sam Cane, have collectively appeared just 22 times.
Kolbe’s three tries is a paltry return when compared to his Springbok teammate and fellow flyer Kurt-lee Arendse, who has been a hit during his loan spell at Chiba, scoring seven times already.

The presence of the tricky South African has transformed the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars attack, to the extent that they now feature prominently in the playoffs conversation and will be chasing a third win on the bounce when they trip to Edogawa to meet Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay.

It is an enormoustask – the third-placed Spears having won their last 22 games at Spears Edoriku Field – but while Arendse will sit this one out, the Dynaboars don’t lack in confidence, having beaten Kubota in the corresponding match last year. An upset would firm them in playoffs contention, and would also tie last year’s six wins, which is the best Sagamihara has achieved since it was promoted after the first season of League One.

Further down the ladder, Toyota Verblitz are staring at their worst return; the two wins they have scavenged well short of the eight from two seasons ago.
Ironically, even though that figure was Toyota’s lowest number of wins for a season since League One began, it would have been enough to make the new six-team playoffs setup had the format been in place that year.
Just staying clear of 11th or 12th, and the post-season relegation series, is the priority for the rest of the season now. On Sunday they meet a kindred ‘spirit’.

While Yokohama is still holding down sixth ranking, the Eagles are at the bottom end of the league’s form table, with their current run of three defeats their worst since the 2014-15 season, which has been compounded by the loss of scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, potentially for the rest of the campaign.

Sadly, de Klerk’s hand injury has denied the game the prospect of Springbok and All Black scrumhalves going head-to-
head, with Verblitz looking to Aaron Smith’s experience to help lead them out of trouble.

Trouble is not a word generally associated with the Wild Knights, but the warning light will most definitely be flashing at

Kumagaya should the one-time table toppers lose for a third week in a row when they face bottom placed Urayasu D-
Rocks at Miyagi.

Coach Robbie Deans has reacted to last weekend’s crushing defeat against Brave Lupus with seven changes, including the relegation of Wallaby star Marika Koroibete to the bench.
Although Greig Laidlaw’s men held their nerve to outlast 14-man Mie Honda Heat last weekend, Urayasu, and their forebears Shining Arcs, boast a terrible record against Panasonic which doesn’t bode well.
They are also without in-form Wallaby midfielder Samu Kerevi, while the game has come too soon for countryman Israel Folau to make his anticipated return.

Heat too, have a mountain to climb, stepping out against the competition’s new leaders, Brave Lupus. With last weekend’s third loss in a row made worse by the suspension of Springbok workhorse Franco Mostert for a week after his illegal cleanout on D-Rocks’ Shane Gates, Kieran Crowley’s men will be up against it facing an opponent who are unbeaten in their last 15, and outclassed Heat 35-12 a month ago.

Defeat at Shizuoka might have cost Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo two places on the table, but such was the fight that was shown in a contest that was in the balance until the finish, coach Tabai Matson and his troops will have returned to Setagaya full of the belief that sixth – just five points from where they are now – is not beyond them.

This is especially so given the form of their skipper, All Black scrumhalf TJ Perenara, whose 13 try ‘assists’ is two more than any other player in the league.
The next challenge is a difficult one, though, with Kobe buoyed by their last gasp win over Suntory and chasing three wins on the spin for the first time this season against an opponent they fleeced 44-15 last time.
Brodie Retallick was a try-scorer on that occasion.

The All Black second rower has struggled to stop scoring since, picking up two last weekend to take his tally to eight in a

remarkable season where the Kobe skipper is both the leading try-scoring forward, as well as having scored the joint most
by any foreign player amongst the competition’s pantheon of stars.
Divisions Two & Three

While they cannot overtake them, Saturday’s first instalment of the split round in Division Two offers NEC Green Rockets
Tokatsu an opportunity to pressure Toyota Shuttles Aichi by closing the gap on the leaders. With one-time frontrunners Red Hurricanes Osaka having fallen away on the back of a hattrick of defeats, the Green
Rockets have emerged as the Shuttles’ biggest threat, with wins in their last four moving Wayne Pivac’s side into second place.

Former Wales flyhalf Rhys Patchell has helped light the fuse, with his 20 points during last weekend’s comfortable win over Shimizu Corporation Koto Blue Sharks indicative of the key figure the 31-year-old has become in his side’s march up the table.

Although Patchell won’t figure against Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves, major improvement will be required by the visitors if they are to mount a challenge, especially after last weekend’s 50-8 belting by Hanazono Kintetsu Liners. The Seawaves leaked 59 points during their loss to the Green Rockets earlier in the season. Having lost just once in their last six, Kintetsu are likewise on the rise but need to keep going if they are to challenge the
two side’s above them for a shot at the promotion/relegation series.

While recent form suggests their next opponent, Hino Red Dolphins, should be no problem, former Wallaby second rower Rory Arnold’s side were last time, when they held Kintetsu to a 38all draw.
Despite their recent dip, which has not been helped by injuries to overseas stars, flyhalf Bryce Hegarty and backrower Blake Gibson, their excellent work through the first three months of the season, means Red Hurricanes remain a hope of promotion if they can rediscover the form that had them top of the league.

After showing promise when they beat Kintetsu last month, defeats in their last two, including a whopping 47-point drubbing by the Shuttles last time, leaves Shimizu Corporation Koto Blue Sharks two points from the bottom. All Black flyhalf Lima Sopoaga’s return, after missing the last two matches, is a boost and he will line up against his ex-

London Wasps teammate, Red Hurricanes second rower Elliott Stooke. The only match in Division Three sees third-placed Kurita Water Gush Akishima host leaders Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima
in a clash that could be pivotal to the home side’s hopes of a top two finish to again feature in the post-season promotion series.

Japan Rugby League One – Round Thirteen Schedule (all kick offs, Japan Time)

Division One

Saturday March 29
Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath v Shizuoka BlueRevs; at Tokyo, 12pm
Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay v Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars; at Tokyo, 12pm
Urayasu D-Rocks v Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights; at Miyagi, 12.05pm
Sunday March 30
Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo v Mie Honda Heat; at Hokkaido, 1pm
Yokohama Canon Eagles v Toyota Verblitz; at Oita, 1.05pm
Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo v Kobelco Kobe Steelers; at Tokyo, 2.30pm

Division Two

Saturday March 29
NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu v Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves; at Chiba, 2.30pm
Shimizu Corporation Koto Blue Sharks v Red Hurricanes Osaka; at Tokyo, 2.30pm
Hanazono Kintetsu Liners v Hino Red Dolphins; at Osaka, 2.30pm
Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi and Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex will complete the round when they meet at Aichi
on Saturday April 5
Division Three

Saturday March 29
Kurita Water Gush Akishima v Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima; at Kanagawa, 12pm
The other two matches of the round will be played on Saturday April 5