Two titans set to meet in Japan league
JAPAN LEAGUE PREVIEW: Two of the traditional titans of the Japanese domestic game are set to face one another when Round 11 of the Japan Rugby League One kicks off in Tokyo this weekend.
Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath have contested the last two grand finals, and the pair have shared 11 domestic titles across the professional era, with the Wild Knights holding a slight advantage, six to five.
While last weekend’s 30-15 defeat of the previously unbeaten Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay extended to 43 the Wild Knights’ unbeaten run in Japan, Sungoliath were the last team to beat them, lowering Panasonic’s colours in the semi-finals of the 2019 competition.
Even though the Wild Knights have beaten Sungoliath to the last two titles, both finals were highly competitive, with Saitama having to defend desperately to see off Suntory last term, in a decider that was in the balance until the final whistle as the defending champions scored the inaugural Japan Rugby League One title, 18-12.
Two seasons ago, Panasonic bested Suntory 31-26 to capture the final edition of the Top League.
Away from Saturday’s feature, Kubota will try to get back on track when it travels to Shizuoka to meet a Blue Revs outfit that will have mixed feelings after last Friday’s draw with Yokohama Canon Eagles.
Hanazono Kintetsu Liners will be aiming for another competitive showing when they welcome Suntory’s conquerors from Match Day 10, Toyota Verblitz, while the Sunday sees NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu greet Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo.
Fourth-placed Yokohama are also in action and – depending on Suntory’s outcome the day before – may have an opportunity to jump Sungoliath on the championship rankings, should they see off a winner from last weekend, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars.
The weekend kicks off at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium on Friday night when the Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo bid to maintain their recent momentum against a Kobelco Kobe Steelers outfit who are probably done as a semi-final contender after last weekends defeat by Brave Lupus.
Division 1
Friday, March 10
RICOH BLACK RAMS TOKYO v KOBELCO KOBE STEELERS
Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo, 7pm (JT)
Fresh from consecutive victories, which have propelled a rise to seventh on the standings, Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo will be looking to continue the upward trajectory when they meet a Kobelco Kobe Steelers side that is faltering.
Last weekend’s 39-point loss to Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo dropped Kobe two places on the ladder. They have now shipped 99 points in their last two outings.
The absence of both All Black midfielder Ngane Laumape and Brave Blossoms flyhalf Seungsin Li undoubtedly impacted on the side’s performance in the 51-12 loss to Toshiba, and with Laumape most likely gone for the rest of the season and Li unavailable again this weekend, Kobe are going to need to look elsewhere for inspiration.
Two cards – one yellow, the other red – didn’t help the cause last week, but as well as correcting the discipline, head coach Nick Holten knows his players must make the most of their attacking opportunities.
“We created chances in the first half [against Toshiba] but we couldn't score where we should,” Holten said at the post-game press conference.
“We couldn't put any pressure on [Toshiba on] the scoreboard and eventually collapsed. As time goes on, you start losing at the point of contact, you can't win if you can't stand it [losing the battle at the breakdown], penalties [are conceded], and in the end, you get a card as well.”
Kobe are now in the wake of the top four by 14 points, but the Steelers’ coach is not yet ready to concede with regards to participation in the playoffs.
“It has become difficult to reach the playoffs. However, we don't want to worry about the standings, but focus on whether we can make the adjustments [needed] for the next match.”
For Ricoh, the picture couldn’t be any more different.
After a campaign with more than its share of bumps, the Black Rams are coming good.
They are now seventh, and with the sixth-placed Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars facing a tricky appointment this weekend with Yokohama, Ricoh could rise further with a success on Friday night.
“The players have been training hard without stopping, and I'm glad that we've been rewarded for that in the last two weeks,” Ricoh coach Peter Hewat told media after last weekend’s convincing 54-7 win over Green Rockets Tokatsu.
“We had a tough month [playing] against the top four, and while we worked hard, we could see that the gap between us and the top four was not huge. I think we've had a good two weeks with that in mind."
Saturday, March 11
TOKYO SUNTORY SUNGOLIATH v SAITAMA PANASONIC WILD KNIGHTS
Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo, 2.00 pm (JT)
Things are starting to flow for the defending champions.
After an in-and-out start to the season where, while winning, the only other consistent aspect of their performance was inconsistency, the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights have inevitably arrived at the point where it’s all starting to click.
Their 30-15 win over Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay showed us the Wild Knights we were used to seeing: relentless on defence, and quick to cash in on any opportunity created on the attack.
This was epitomised by star flyhalf Takuya Yamasawa, who was simply too hot for Kubota to handle.
Next to try their luck are Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath, who know all about Yamasawa after his last-ditch tackle on All Black star Damien McKenzie denied them a certain try at a key moment in last year’s final.
While Yamasawa is a more than capable defender, as he’s proved from fullback where he will play against Suntory, 58 points in his last three outings is testament to the threat the 28-year-old poses in attack.
It’s no coincidence that with Yamasawa conducting the orchestra, the Wild Knights’ attack has made a sweet tune, with the defending champions having scored 164 points in their last four outings, just six short of their accumulation from the first six Match Days.
In this context, last weekend couldn’t have been a worse time for Sungoliath to have suffered a confidence-sapping second defeat of the season.
The 27-20 loss to Toyota Verblitz denied Suntory the opportunity to leap-frog Kubota on the table.
“We played in a way that gave Toyota V momentum in terms of execution ability,” Sungoliath Rugby Director Kiyonori Tanaka acknowledged when speaking at the press conference after that defeat.
"We're an attacking team, and we're a team that has a lot of breakdowns. Also, [in today's match], we were able to see the space itself, so we will improve our ability to carry the ball there.”
The Suntory brains trust, which includes Wallaby coach Eddie Jones who remains on the payroll as an advisor, have reacted to the performance against Toyota by making significant changes.
Last week’s skipper, halfback Naoto Saito, has been relegated to the bench while the wrecking ball Brave Blossoms backrower Tevita Tatafu returns to the back of the scrum, after starting on the pine in the loss.
Former Crusaders midfielder Isaiah Punivai is another casualty, missing the match altogether.
Don’t be surprised if we learn later that Jones has been on the phone to Japan this week, helping Tanaka to cook up a plan.
SHIZUOKA BLUE REVS v KUBOTA SPEARS FUNABASHI TOKYO BAY
Ecopa Stadium, Shizuoka, 2.30pm (JT)
The quest to land a big fish goes on.
After last week’s 22-22 tie with Yokohama, Shizuoka Blue Revs know that they are a better team than their lowly 10th position on the point’s table suggests. But they need to prove it.
Last year, the Blue Revs won five games to steer clear of relegation trouble, but they also lost three games by six or less, three of which were against teams who made the semi-finals.
Against Kubota, the margin of defeat was just six (24-30).
This year, the pattern has repeated, with two draws, alongside narrow losses to Toyota (five points), Saitama (one), Kobe (three) and Suntory (eight).
“We took the lead in the last 10 minutes, but we couldn't win the match, and that's the kind of game we've been playing,” Blue Revs coach Takanobu Horrikawa lamented to the media after the side’s second draw of the campaign.
“We had a chance to win today, but we couldn't, so we will look back on the video and talk with the players to improve what we can do [to manage] the last 10 minutes.
However, the players are improving a lot, and I think they can still improve.”
The Spears are also seeking to improve, but while last weekend’s first defeat of the season was disappointing, Spears coach Frans Ludeke was far from disheartened.
“The difference between us and Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights was the battle in the last 10 minutes of the second half. We had chances to catch up, but we lacked accuracy at the end,” he explained to Japanese media.
“I [We] want to learn from this match and keep improving hungrily. We will look back on the match and improve what we need to improve before moving on to the next game."
For all the physicality the Spears brought to last weekend’s performance, their talisman hooker Malcolm Marx and free-scoring winger Haruto Kida, were both kept scoreless.
If they are to emulate the Wild Knights, the Blue Revs will need to keep the star Kubota pair at bay too.
HANAZONO KINTETSU LINERS v TOYOTA VERBLITZ
Higashiosaka City Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Osaka, 2.30pm (JT)
Against Sungoliath, Toyota Verblitz finally ‘painted a different ‘picture’.
In a season on the field that’s been more akin to crayon art by children than Michelangelo masterpiece, skipper Kazuki Himeno finally had Toyota’s ‘paint brushes’ in alignment last weekend against Suntory, recording his first win as an individual in the process against the perennial heavyweights, having been trying since 2017.
“As a leader, I looked at the same picture and connected in the same direction. I focused on giving the team confidence and prepared for the week. Keep it simple and clear about what needs to be done,” Himeno explained to the attending media after the 27-20 victory.
"I told them [the players] not to think deeply about the situation of the team, but to only fulfil their roles, and to do their best only to do the work that was given to them. We attacked simply. In defence, we simply played hard and made the most of our physical strengths.”
The physicality with which Himeno and his colleagues dominated Sungoliath at the breakdown, choking off the quick ball that is the lifeblood of the star Suntory outside backs, would not have made for pleasant viewing for their next opponents, even though Kintetsu Liners are coming off one of their better performances of the campaign.
Although they remain winless, last term’s Division Two champions showed plenty of resolve last weekend against Sagamihara, producing four tries during a plucky effort, where rather than folding after the concession of an early 14-point deficit, they fought back to outscore the Dynaboars 29-24 for the remainder of the match.
Not a win, but progress.
There is also good news on the injury front, albeit not immediately, with the possibility of Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper returning for at least some part of what’s left of the season, including the likely promotion/relegation series, where his mercurial ability will be needed.
Sunday, March 12
NEC GREEN ROCKETS TOKATSU v TOSHIBA BRAVE LUPUS TOKYO
Kashiwanoha Park Stadium, Chiba, 2.30pm (JT)
The renaissance was brief.
A week after its best performance of the season when upsetting Mitsubishi, the NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu misfired spectacularly against Ricoh, plunging to arguably the worse of their eight defeats so far.
Two yellow cards, and one red, meant that the Green Rockets played a man down for one minute short of half an hour, so it was probably no surprise how the crumbled, letting in seven tries as the Black Rams thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Getting back on the horse isn’t going to be easy against a Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo side who last week enjoyed a renaissance of their own, reviving their hopes of back-to-back semi-final appearances after a comprehensive 51-12 victory over Kobe.
Ominously for a side that has just conceded seven tries, being called on to play a team that has scored 38 in its’ last six outings, is not exactly ideal.
While Toshiba had been scoring plenty of tries, until last weekend, it had also been conceding plenty of them.
Limiting Kobe to two by improving the line speed and overall alignment of the defence was a big step forward for the side, as was their greater lineout accuracy.
“The last few weeks have been tough, but we've worked hard to fix it,” Toshiba coach Todd Blackadder said after the game.
“We were able to play tough [against Kobe] today, we were able to show our confidence.”
While the focus last week was just to win, having lost the previous three, the fact that the gap to fourth-placed Yokohama is still reachable, being seven points with six games to play, hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially after last term, when Brave Lupus won their last six to qualify for the maiden Japan Rugby League One semi-finals with seven points to spare.
“We were in a similar situation last season [to where they are now on the standings, with six games remaining] and the team got better in the second half from there,” Brave Lupus skipper Takahiro Ogawa explained after scoring two tries in the win over Kobe.
“I feel like we are a team that can grow during the season and I don't think we all gave up on the playoffs, so I think we're heading in the right direction."
Ogawa might just be right.
After all, the first of their six ‘green bottles’ to fall last year was none other than Kobe.
MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES SAGAMIHA DYNABOARS v YOKOHAMA CANON EAGLES
Sagamihara Gion Stadium, Kanagawa, 2.30pm (JT)
As much as it was a morale-boost, last weekend’s 38-29 win over Hanazono Kintetsu Liners was not without its ominous signs for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars.
Although snapping a five-week run without success, the difficulties Sagamihara experienced in putting away the only team across all three divisions of the league still to win a game, doesn’t bode well for the side currently ranked sixth on the point’s table.
After a strong start to the season defensively, the Dynaboar’s difficulties have been underlined by their inability to hold opponents at bay: the 29 scored by Kintetsu took to 222, the number of points the side has conceded in its last five matches, at an average a tick under 45 per game.
Mathematically, with six regular season games to play, Sagamihara is still in the playoffs equation.
Such thinking seems fanciful on their recent form, which may be reinforced hosting the side currently in fourth.
If Mitsubishi was to stage a late run to the playoffs, one of the teams they would have to eject from the playoff positions as they stand is the Yokohama Canon Eagles, who will arrive in Sagamihara steaming after having been held to a second draw of the season in Match Day 10.
As well as Shizuoka played in the 22-22 draw, the Eagles are looking inward for answers.
“Our performance was not good, so rather than asking people around us to excuse us, we need to turn our vectors to ourselves and be able to improve even more, no matter what obstacles we have,” Eagles coach Keisuke Sawake told Japanese media after the match.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we didn't show what we had prepared for,” Eagles skipper Yusuke Kajimura added.
“I would like to review the performances of each individual, myself included and make this a good opportunity for us to grow both individually and as a team."
The last time the Eagles hierarchy sat at the top table and spoke to the media about the growth they were chasing as a team was at Kumagaya five weeks ago after an agonizing defeat by the Wild Knights.
They haven’t lost a game since.
Division 2
After a series of encouraging performances in recent weeks, Kamaishi Sewaves face Division Two’s biggest test when they welcome Urayasu D-Rocks to Iwate’s Reconstruction Stadium.
The home side fought back from 31-18 down to tie the game 38-38 last Sunday, before two penalty goals saw the Toyota Shuttles Aichi scrape home 44-38.
A week earlier, the Seawaves fought back to tie the second period 19-19 at Mie, after having conceded a 22-7 lead in the first half.
The unbeaten D-Rocks, who won 64-26 when the two teams met last month, average 54 points per game, which suggests the Seawaves are going to be stretched to hold their visitors.
This was something Shimizu Corporation Koto Blue Sharks was unable to do during last weekend’s 59-0 defeat to Urayasu, and they will be hoping for a more competitive effort when the visit Mie Honda Heat.
The two met in mid-January, and the Blue Sharks put up a solid fight before Heat eventually prevailed 29-10.
Sunday, March 12
KAMAISHI SEAWAVES RFC v URAYASU D-ROCKS at Iwate
MIE HONDA HEAT v SHIMUZU CORPORATION KOTO BLUES SHARKS at Mie
Division 3
The last team to beat the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes will try to do it again when Kurita Water Gush Akishima trek down from Tokyo to take on the league leaders in Kobe.
Water Gush, who are coached by ex-Wallaby Wycliff Palu, beat the Red Hurricanes 37-32 when the two sides last met at the end of January, but their push up the point’s table has stalled, having lost to each of the Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex and the Mazda Skyactivs Hiroshima.
With the Red Hurricanes having a game in hand on the Voltex, with whom they currently share 29-log points, the Osaka-based club will claim the outright lead if it is successful in Kobe on Sunday.
Further south, Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions will be seeking to do the double on their cross-town rivals in the Hiroshima derby, having got the better of the Skyactivs 26-7 on the opening weekend of the season.
Sunday, March 12
CHUGOKU ELECTRIC POWER RED REGULIONS v MAZDA SKYACTIVS HIROSHIMA at Hiroshima
NTT DOCOMO RED HURRICANES v KURITA WATER GUSH AKISHIMA at Kobe