Division One

If a week is a long-time in sport, 12 months must feel a lifetime for Japan’s flyhalf from the ‘Miracle of Brighton’, Kosei Ono.

Appointed boss of Tokyo Sungoliath, the club he had served faithfully for eight years as a player, Ono had yet to experience a win as a head coach in Japan Rugby League One this time last term and had to wait until mid-January before that milestone was finally achieved.

Not so, this time.

With international stars Cheslin Kolbe, Sean McMahon and Sam Cane starting off in top gear, and wrecking ball Tongan-born backrower Tevita Tatafu making an impact after returning from his stint in France with European champions Bordeaux, Sungoliath have hit the ground running with two wins, so life in western Tokyo at this moment is pretty good.

Kubota Spears will be looking to change that.

A point behind Saturday’s opponents on the log, but likewise unbeaten, Frans Ludeke’s team have been tested and overcome adversity in each of their wins over Kobelco Kobe Steelers and BlackRams Tokyo.

New World Rugby Player of the Year Malcolm Marx has not let the award distract him from getting straight down to business, playing all but three of the available 160 minutes so far, the Spears also have a settled roster and – perhaps even more importantly – know how to win.

Having been beaten just twice since the start of last season, Kubota are a side with a relentless mentality and seldom get flustered.

Ominously for Ono, the Spears are no longer a ‘bunny’ for Sungoliath, who had beaten them 14-straight before Kubota tipped that record on its head with a three-game whitewash in their title-winning 2023-24 season.

The hattrick precipitated a role reversal between the two, with the Spears now having lost just one of the last eight when facing Sungoliath.

The clash between the teams currently placed first and third kicks off a bumper post-Christmas weekend which is also notable for matchups between Kobelco Kobe Steelers and Toyota Verblitz, as well as Yokohama Eagles against Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, where the rival coaches share an interesting backstory.

Dave Rennie’s Kobe beat the Ian Foster co-coached Verblitz 63-21 on the latter’s arrival in League One last year, after the pair renewed a rivalry that had previously been on show in the Bledisloe Cup with Rennie at the helm of the Wallabies, while Foster guided the All Blacks.

While Kobe got off the ‘mark’ last time, eclipsing Mie Honda Heat, the former Australian coach needs to coax more consistency out of his men, with the Steelers having bounced between win and loss through a sequence of their last eight matches.

The relationship between Yokohama’s new boss Leon MacDonald and Brave Lupus supremo Todd Blackadder is of a different nature, with the pair being two of the key pillars in the foundation of a dynasty in Super Rugby with the Crusaders that is still dominant 30 years later.

Both played over 100 matches for the Christchurch-based team and are regarded as two of the greatest players ever to have donned the Crusaders famed red and black jersey.

It’s early days but Yokohama’s new head man needs to instill some of that renowned Crusaders resilience into his charges who, coupled with the back end of last season, have now lost six-in-a-row, which is the Eagles’ worst run of consecutive defeats since they were beaten eight times through the 2014 and 15 period.

Despite two decent performances first up, BlackRams Tokyo and Mie Honda Heat are both still winless, and will be looking to break their ‘duck’ when they get together to get the weekend started, while Shizuoka BlueRevs and Urayasu D-Rocks are also coming off defeats ahead of a tussle to kick off Sunday that reeks of unpredictability, and potentially plenty of points.

While history favours the BlueRevs who have won the last eight, last season the pair combined to produce a remarkable 62-52 scoreline, which was the first time in the Japanese league that both sides had topped 50 in a game.

Fresh from an impressive performance to best Yokohama in the Kanagawa derby, Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars will now try their luck against the unbeaten Saitama Wild Knights, buoyed by the news that All Black scrumhalf Brad Weber, the club’s new signing, has now been cleared to feature.

The Dynaboars will need him.

Not only have Saitama made a super start under new boss Atsushi Kanazawa, they have also won their last seven appointments with Sagamihara, averaging 57 points per game.

Division Two & Three

There is no play in the lower sections apart from at Iwaki where the Iron Man of the North, Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves, welcomes Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex.

Both sides have won one, and lost one, to start the new season in Division Two.