Division One

Can Mie Honda Heat sustain their charge in Japan Rugby League One?

With five wins from their last eight, Pablo Matera’s side have already whizzed past their entire tally of wins for last season, with their current haul matching the number the Suzuka-based club collected across their first two years after returning to Division One.

More importantly, their finals flame is still flickering, one point behind sixth-placed Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, after a run which has included back-to-back wins over the two-time defending champions.

Continuing to improve their standing is about to get harder when they host a Tokyo Sungoliath outfit that will be hurting after last weekend’s traumatic defeat by Saitama Wild Knights, which was conceded in improbable circumstances well after regular time had elapsed.

Honda were no match for Saturday's rivals in January, although they were still in the contest, trailing by a converted try, when second rower Heat Mark Abbott was shown a red card.
With their opponents down a man, Sungoliath took control, easing to a 30-15 win.

Heat looked anything but a contender at the time, with the loss being their fifth on end to start the season, but they broke their ‘duck’ the following week against Urayasu D-Rocks and have not looked back.
Last weekend’s bonus-point win, which completed a season double over D-Rocks, lifted former Italy coach Kieran Crowley’s charges to seventh, their highest league position since they returned to Division One, one point and one place above Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz, who have also forced their way into the post-season conversation
after a run of four wins from their last five.

Next for Verblitz is a date with the competition’s new leaders, Kubota Spears, who returned to top spot after schooling Brave Lupus 51-7 in a contest that lost its’ sting in the second period as the competition front-runners helped themselves to 34 points without reply.

Perhaps surprisingly, All Black scrumhalf Aaron Smith starts on the Toyota bench, with World Player of the Year and Spears hooker Malcolm Marx likewise not expected to be involved until later on in the game.

Kubota were untroubled by Verblitz earlier in the season, building up a 39-0 lead after 50 minutes before applying the brakes, which allowed Toyota to gain some consolation from two unconverted tries in a 39-10 defeat.

Saitama, boosted by the return of Wallaby winger Marika Koroibete after a four-game absence, have the chance to reclaim top spot, should Kubota drop any points at Gifu, when they host Leon MacDonald’s Yokohama Canon Eagles at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium.
League One’s maiden champions have lost just once in 36 appearances at Kumagaya since the competition inaugurated, which is indicative of the size of the task awaiting the Eagles despite the upswing in performance driven by Springbok Faf de Klerk, with two wins and a narrow loss to Toyota among Yokohama’s results from the four games since their star scrumhalf returned.

Fellow South African Jesse Kriel will lead the Eagles after missing the last three games, lining up against his long-
time Springbok midfield partner Damian de Allende, who will be on the Saitama side of the halfway line at kick off.

While not as free-scoring as in previous seasons – the 63 tries the Wild Knights have scored to date is the lowest total among the current top four – the organization and unflappability on defence that was the hallmark of the Robbie Deans coaching era has been maintained on his successor’s watch.
Atsushi Kanazawa’s men have erected the meanest barricade in the league after 13 matches; something they have previously achieved in two of the four completed League One regular seasons.
They were second in the other two.

As both the Spears and Sungoliath can attest, the current generation are not panicking under time pressure either, finding solutions to get out of tight spots when they need them.
This was the case last weekend when Sungoliath appeared to have dodged a bullet after Saitama had what would have been a match-winning try in injury time ruled out for obstruction, only for the Wild Knights to come again, solving their ‘problem’ with a try two minutes later.

Problems are something Kwagga Smith’s Shizuoka BlueRevs know all about.

After losing just four matches in the entirety of last term, the Springbok backrower’s side have already lost nine this time, and are rapidly running out of time, five points astern of the top six, with five matches remaining.

Their next opponents’ need is equally as great, with Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars three points further back, but just one place above the Replacement Battle positions.

Kobelco Kobe Steelers, who added to Shizuoka’s woes last weekend, are only two points from the Wild Knights as they visit BlackRams Tokyo.
If the home side are to effect an upset, they are going to have to blunt an offence that is the sharpest in the league, with skipper Brodie Retallick (14) and wingers Inoke Burua and Kazuma Ueda (both nine) making up three of the league's six highest try-scorers, as part of a machine that has collectively totaled 86 tries; nine more than the next highest, Kubota.

The BlackRams need no reminding of the trio’s potency, with Retallick memorably scoring four times, while Burua and Ueda were also try-scorers among 10 Kobe scored when they won the previous meeting, 67-21.

The Setagaya-based outfit have only lost twice since – both against the Wild Knights – and continue to be inspired by their feisty skipper TJ Perenara.
A lead contender for the league’s most influential player, the combative scrumhalf led his men to their eighth win of the season when they outclassed Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars 31-7.
This is already two in advance of their previous best number of wins for a season, which they have achieved twice.

While Perenara apart, they lack the big names of their playoff’s rivals, the All Black – alongside second-season BlackRams coach Tabai Matson – has instilled plenty of belief among the playing group.
This is best illustrated by their discipline, where they are the least penalized in the league, having been the most sanctioned two years before Matson arrived.

While third plays fifth in downtown Tokyo, Sunday’s other match sees two teams who have collectively lost their last 16 matches convene in Sapporo when Brave Lupus – who remain in the top six despite seven straight defeats – host bottom-of-the-table D-Rocks, who were edged closer to the end-of-season relegation series precipice after suffering their ninth loss in a row against Honda.

Division Two & Three

There are full rounds in each of the lower sections, with city derbies in both, as Division Two leaders Hanazono Kintetsu Liners host the RedHurricanes in the Osaka derby, while the Hiroshima version pits the frontrunners in Division Three, SkyActivs, against their cross-town rivals, Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions.