Division One

Saitama Wild Knights are the sole unbeaten side left in the premier division of Japan Rugby League One after a dramatic weekend saw them edge Tokyo Sungoliath 31-30, while Kubota Spears surrendered their perfect record following a 24-20 loss to defending champions Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo in thrilling replay of last season’s championship decider.

The Wild Knights, who were defending a record of having lost just once in their last 41 home games, looked to have done the business yesterday when they worked to a 31-16 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining, with Springbok midfielder Damien de Allende producing one of their four tries.

Another came from a penalty try after Cheslin Kolbe was deemed to have prevented a certain try by slapping down a pass after the Wild Knights had created a clear overlap.
The Springbok winger was yellow carded in the incident; his second yellow in as many games against Saitama.

The Wild Knights 15-point lead did prove enough, but only just with the gap narrowed to a point after Kolbe partially redeemed himself by crossing for his fourth try of the season with two minutes to play.
After he converted to complete a haul of 15 points for the afternoon, the Wild Knights held on, with their sixth win of the season moving them three points clear on the standings after the Spears were denied in the 80th minute by All Black flyhalf Richie Mo’unga.
The 31-year-old, who had been man-of-the-match in last year’s 18-13 victory over the Spears despite playing the final with a broken hand, flummoxed three defenders with quick feet to dive across for the match-winner in the final play of an epic contest.
Brave Lupus led 12-3 at halftime but conceded a try to Shaun Stevenson shortly after the re-start which brought Kubota back into contention.
The inform All Black fullback, who backed up a break by scrumhalf Shinobu Fujiwara to score, then set up winger Yamada Hibiki 20 minutes later, allowing the Spears to claim the lead for the first time in the game.

The play was Stevenson’s seventh try ‘assist’, to go along with the four he has scored, with his 11 try involvements the most by an individual so far in the season.
The scores were tied 17-17 heading into the final stages, and Kubota appeared to have won it when Wallaby flyhalf Bernard Foley landed a penalty goal with three minutes left.
But Toshiba thought otherwise, gaining the field position that provided Mo’unga with the opportunity to conjure up the winning play, allowing them to repeat the result of last year’s competition decider, despite featuring only seven of the same players from that starting XV.
Although it was Toshiba’s fifth consecutive win over Kubota, the winning margin has never been greater than five points, illustrating the close nature of the rivalry between the teams.

The end to Kubota’s 13-match winning sequence in regular season matches allowed third placed Kobelco Kobe Steelers to close the gap to a point on the standings following their 38-32 success against bottom side Yokohama Canon Eagles.
All Black second rower Brodie Retallick, who is the competition's leading try-scorer, scored his eighth of the season during the Steelers’ success, with his try helping to allow the visitors to shake off their determined opponents through the middle stages of the second half, with three tries in 15 minutes blowing Kobe out to 23-point lead.

Despite a late rally from the home side which featured two tries by Springbok centre Jesse Kriel, Kobe extended their current unbeaten run to five matches, which is the club’s best since a side coached by Wayne Smith won the title in 2018 during a sequence of 18 wins on end.
Kobe’s last title winning side, which was captained by All Black scrumhalf Andy Ellis, also featured his test colleague and three-time World Rugby Player of the Year, Dan Carter.
The Eagles remain stranded at the foot of the standings and are the only side still to win in Division One after Mie Honda Heat got off the mark following a rousing 32-23 win over Urayasu D-Rocks at Tochigi yesterday.

D-Rocks weren’t helped by the red card awarded against second rower Manaaki Selby-Rickit, and while they briefly raised hopes of an against the odds victory by edging ahead 16-15 shortly after halftime, Honda responded with three tries to make sure of both a try-scoring bonus point as well as their first win of season.
The maximum point return, which took Honda above both Toyota Verblitz and Mitsubishi Sagmihara Dynaboars on the standings, also ended the club’s run of 14 regular season games without a win.

Sagamihara have now lost four on the trot and were architects of their own demise to some extent during their 33-24 loss to BlackRams Tokyo, blowing a 19-13 halftime lead, as well as conceding two yellow cards concurrently during the second half when they trailed by just four points.
The BlackRams made the most of their hosts’ generosity, extending their advantage to 11, and while a try by Springbok centre Lukhanyo Am closed the gap to six points, briefly reviving the Dynaboars’ hopes, Ichigo Nakakusu’s fourth penalty goal of the afternoon in injury time closed the door, while completing an 18-point performance by the visitor’s flyhalf.
The away side has won each of the last six matches between the pair.

Shizuoka BlueRevs climbed into the top six, while leaving Verblitz languishing in the relegation series places heading into the season’s second bye weekend, after an impressive 43-19 demolition job at Yamaha Stadium today.
The home side, who raced to a 24-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes, were never threatened with skipper Kwagga Smith coming off the bench to score his first try of the season in the second half, after former Australian National Rugby League player Valynce Te Whare had scored for the second week on end.
Verblitz, who have not won since opening day, have conceded 203 points during a horrific five game run since, and have suffered an added blow with Springbok backrower Pieter Steph du Toit being ruled out by injury for potentially the rest of the season.

Division Two & Three

There was late drama in Division Two, with Kiwi veteran Orbyn Leger slotting an 81st minute penalty goal for Green Rockets Tokatsu to snatch a 21-19 win over Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex.
The only game in Division Three saw leaders SkyActivs Hiroshima outclass Yakult Levins Toda 66-24.