Division One

These are unusual times for the Saitama Wild Knights.

A new head coach, an unbeaten run broken, a record defeat, and just third position on a championship ladder they nearly always have led.
All are not the usual order of business for Japan Rugby League One’s traditional regular season standard bearers.

While the loss of one game, after opening the season with eight straight wins, is not an emergency on its own, the manner of last weekend’s 16-point defeat to Kobelco Kobe Steelers will have boss Atsushi Kanazawa and the brains trust at the Wild Knights slightly concerned.
Even though their losing margin in Hyogo was decisive enough, in reality the 40-24 scoreline was flattering.

The reverse had also probably been coming, after the former league-leaders had battled in wins over the mid-table Ricoh BlackRams Tokyo, and bottom-placed Toyota Verblitz, in the two matches prior to their ill-fated Kobe visit.

The good news is that Brave Blossoms centre Dylan Riley will make his return from injury in Saturday's date with Mie Honda Heat, after having missed the last six matches due to injury.

The 28-year-old’s midfield partnership with Springbok Damien de Allende has such dominance that the pair have been selected alongside each other in three of the League’s four Teams of the Year (de Allende missed most of the odd season out due to injury).
Riley is not just a central figure for the Wild Knights, but also Japan, which will have national coach Eddie Jones watching with interest.

Although Saitama have bossed Honda since its return from Division Two three seasons ago, the Suzuka-based outfits’ current iteration is an undoubtedly superior model to marks one and two, with three wins from the last four hard evidence of that.

Honda’s growing confidence was evident as they overturned a 21-5 halftime deficit in Sunday’s Motorcycle Derby against Shizuoka BlueRevs, breathing further life into a campaign that had appeared doomed after they opened with five defeats.

While Heat have shipped 171 points across three matches against the Wild Knights since they returned to Division One, including a demoralizing 70-12 drubbing two years ago, they will head to Kumagaya hoping to capitalize on any dent to their host’s confidence.
Saitama only lost four matches last term, but they twice came in consecutive weeks, mid-season, and then in the playoffs.

While the Wild Knights have been given pause for thought as they face up to the threat of losing back-to-back regular season matches for just the second time in League One, their issues pale in comparison to those of champions Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, who have endured three weekends of misery following their heroic 24-20 win over Kubota Spears at the end of last month.

The slump was triggered by a 44-38 loss to Honda, but defeat by Kobe in the dying moments, and last weekend’s disastrous rout by Toyota, have left the defending champions in fifth, and looking down the table and not up it, as they assess the potential threats to their spot in the top six.

One of those is their next opponents, Ricoh BlackRams Tokyo, who are enjoying their best season since the league inaugurated under the stewardship of former (Canterbury) Crusaders assistant coach and Harlequins Director of Rugby, Tabai Matson.

This time last year, the BlackRams had only two wins to their name, and were third from bottom.

They head into Saturday as the winners of three of the last four, with a narrow defeat by the Wild Knights in between, and just one place below Brave Lupus.
Fueled by consecutive wins over two-time champions Toshiba, and the inaugural champions Saitama, Kobe can top the ladder for the first time in League One should they beat a Urayasu D-Rocks outfit that is struggling, after a bright opening had yielded three wins from their first four outings.

Graham Rowntree’s men haven’t won since early January, and even with star man Israel Folau beginning to fire, they will be up against it facing rampant opponents who are bidding for a ninth win on end.

Dave Rennie’s men haven’t been restricted to less than 30 points since their 22-20 win over Tokyo Sungoliath in the first game of 2026, and have run in an astonishing 37 tries, at an average of 7.4 per outing, in 400 minutes of playing time since then.
This doesn’t bode well for D-Rocks, who haven’t held an opponent below 30 during the same timeframe.

Although a Kobe win would relegate Kubota to second, the Spears would be unlikely to end the weekend below their rivals, as they kick off Sunday’s triple-header against bottom placed Yokohama Canon Eagles.

The Jesse Kriel-led Eagles were wiped out in the last quarter by Tokyo Sungoliath despite having a one-man advantage for some of this time, and while they are just four points from 10th placed Verblitz, it appears the end-of-season Replacement Battle – for finishing in the bottom two – is already calling for the two-time semi-finalists.

Fresh from their confidence-boosting 31-point demolition of Brave Lupus, Toyota will be looking to put further space between themselves and the relegation series when they take on 11th placed Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars in Japan’s ancient capital, the historic city of Kyoto.

While Sagamihara put up a decent showing in last week’s 26-10 defeat by the Spears, an inability to capitalize when their opponents were reduced to 13 players killed their chances, scoring just one try during this period.

Tries were not a problem in last year’s thriller, where the Dynaboars scored six as they rocketed to a 39-7 lead prior to halftime, before being forced to defend grimly in the final stages as Verblitz mounted a superb salvage attempt, narrowly denied in a 44-40 defeat.

Although they won 14 of 18 matches during the last regular season and finished 23 points above Sunday’s opponents on the ladder, Shizuoka BlueRevs lost both matches against Sungoliath during that campaign, which isn’t promising as they host the men from Fuchu at Yamaha Stadium to round off the weekend.
Shizuoka are seventh but have seven points to make up on the top six and are starting to run out of time.

Sungoliath have no such worries, comfortably ensconced in fourth, with a game in hand on the sides around them.

After injuries dogged last year’s campaign, the team’s international trio of Springbok Cheslin Kolbe, All Black Sam Cane and Wallaby Sean McMahon are thriving, and recent defeats by just two points against Kobe, and one to Saitama, offer positive signs as the second half of the regular season gets underway.
While Sungoliath have been a support player to the major ‘acts’ in the playoffs’ cast for the three years since they made the inaugural League One final, their ability to fly under the radar as a genuine contender may vanish if they continue to progress as they are.

A fourth win in five won’t go unnoticed.

Division Two & Three

There are three matches in Division Two, with Shimizu Corporation Koto Blue Sharks’ clash with Green Rockets Tokatsu the most influential for the top end of the standings, while the Hiroshima Derby between SkyActivs and the Red Regulions highlights Division Three, with both sides coming off winning performances last time out.