Division One

In the world of Japan Rugby League One, games don’t come much bigger than this.

In the orange corner, the Kubota Spears: winners of the 2022-23 title, current table leaders, finalists last year, and the winners of all but one of the 10 games they have played since their loss to Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo in the championship game.

In the blue corner, the Saitama Wild Knights: six times champion of Japan, winners of the inaugural League One, finalists in three of the four completed competitions, with just 10 defeats from 84 matches since the competition’s inauguration five years ago.
So, who blinks?

While Saturday’s match, which kicks off another exciting weekend, won’t confirm top seeding for the playoffs, the winner will steal a sizable advantage with seven games remaining in the regular season.
They will also ‘establish’ a psychological edge over their rivals that they can carry into the finals series.

On that score, victory is arguably more important for the third-placed Wild Knights, who are three behind on the points table.

When Saitama lost the second League One final to the Spears, it was Kubota’s first win over their rivals in 18 attempts since a nationwide league began in 2003.
They repeated in last year’s semi-final after the Wild Knights had been lucky to escape without defeat in each of the regular season matches between the pair, which finished in a draw, and a two-point win for Saitama.
Spears’ goal-kicking whiz, Bernard Foley, missed with late attempts at the posts on both occasions.

Leading point-scorer when the Spears won their maiden title, the ex-Wallaby is once again right up there, with BlackRams Tokyo pivot Ichigo Nakakusu the only player to have exceeded the Kubota man’s 118 points.

Foley’s head-to-head battle with the Wild Knights’ Japanese star, Takuya Yamasawa, should be one of the game’s individual highlights, as well as being a key influencer on the outcome.

Kubota were forced to work harder than might have been expected during their 28-10 win over bottom placed Yokohama Canon Eagles two weeks ago, but the Wild Knights showed that they had banished any hangover from their record defeat by Kobelco Kobe Steelers, swatting aside Mie Honda Heat 66-19.
Whatever happens at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, second-placed Kobe will be poised to benefit.

A win over Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars at Kobe would add to the good times for the newly minted All Blacks coach Dave Rennie.
It would either establish a decent break on the Wild Knights in the race for top seeding in the regular season (currently just one point separates the two) or give the Steelers an opportunity to end the day on top of the standings if the Spears have lost earlier in the afternoon.
Although the Dynaboars are likely to arrive riding high after last weekend’s 34-15 demolition of Sungoliath, they will field a much changed starting XV, with coach Glenn Delaney opting to make eight changes.

Even though they were without Springbok star Cheslin Kolbe, Sungoliath had few excuses, and it was not an ideal preparation for one of their biggest dates on the calendar: the Fuchu derby against Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo.

The western Tokyo clubs share 12 national titles between them since the advent of the Japan-wide round robin league in 2003, but although both are current top six residents, fourth-placed Sungoliath have lost to each of the teams ranked above them, while four consecutive defeats have shaken Toshiba’s ‘tenancy’, with the defending champions by no means out of sight of the chasing pack yet.

Brave Lupus have had the better of the rivalry in recent years, sweeping Sungoliath with an unprecedented hattrick of victories during their championship run two years ago, before backing up with a 43-33 win last term during their successful title defense, despite playing 20 minutes with 14 men after two separate yellow cards.
Sungoliath’s last derby win came three years ago when winger Seiya Ozaki, a hattrick scorer two weeks ago, also scored three tries in a 40-34 success.

The BlackRams sit between Sungoliath and Brave Lupus on the point’s table and will be aiming to further consolidate their hold on fifth, while edging Shizuoka BlueRevs ever closer to playoffs’ extinction.
The BlueRevs, who have lost their last four and are rapidly sliding out of contention, will be led by Charles Piutau, who makes a timely return after missing the last two-games, to take the captaincy from an absent Kwagga Smith.

They might be just one point behind the BlueRevs, and currently ninth, but the Franco Mostert-skippered Honda will be wary of Yokohama, with defeat having the potential to drop them into the two relegation series places.

The Eagles will be boosted by the return of Springbok star Faf de Klerk, with the South African scrumhalf not having stripped since he suffered a leg injury on the opening day of the season.
Heat are one of five teams to have won three matches.

This includes the Graham Rowntree-coached Urayasu D-Rocks, who are three points behind Honda in 11th. Sunday sees D-Rocks face another of the three win ‘club’, Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz.
Urayasu were 10 points above their rivals in the standings two rounds ago, but now trail by three, with their respective trajectories heading in opposite directions.

While D-Rocks’ super start to the season, winning three of their first four, is a fading memory, Verblitz have come to life after back-to-back wins over Brave Lupus and Sagamihara.
If Toyota can achieve a hattrick for the first time since the league’s second edition, the finals are back in play for a campaign that, for much of the season, had appeared terminal.

Division Two & Three

There are four matches in the lower sections.
In winning three matches under new coach Toutai Kefu, Kamaishi have already achieved a seasonal best.

Inflicting the first defeat of the season on the section-leading Hanazono Kintetsu Liners last time out suggests there is much more to come from the ‘Iron Man of the North’.
Kefu’s men will equal the entire number of regular season wins that the club collected over the competition’s first four editions, if they can achieve three more before the season ends.

A bonus point win against the Red Hurricanes would also take them above Green Rockets Tokatsu into fourth place on the section standings.