Division One

It is a special week in Kobe.

Tomorrow (Friday) the city remembers the 30th anniversary of the 1995 earthquake which struck Kobe and its surrounding area, with over 6400 people losing their lives while an estimated 520,000 buildings were destroyed.

The Kobelco Kobe Steelers players and management will attend the annual remembrance in the city and play in a special one-off jersey as they welcome Urayasu D-Rocks to Hyogo’s Noevir Stadium on Sunday.

After losses in four of their last five away from Kansai, the Steelers will be looking forward to getting back to familiar surroundings and putting on a performance worthy of the occasion.

Kobelco Kobe Steelers will play in a special jersey for the remembrance of the earthquake

It won’t necessarily be straight-forward.

While the newly promoted D-Rocks remains winless, Kobe coach Dave Rennie knows a potential banana skin when he sees it, being well acquainted from his Super Rugby days with D-Rocks’ star man Israel Folau, who is springing to life and burned the Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo defense to score a brilliant individual try during last Saturday’s narrow loss.

Fresh from their first defeat of the season, it would not have surprised to have heard that the Shizuoka Blue Revs had been hitting the tackle bags harder at training following last weekend’s reverse against Yokohama Canon Eagles.

Having conceded 87 points in their last two outings, the Kwagga Smith-led side will certainly need to sharpen up defensively for Saturday’s assignment where they face Brave Lupus.

Even without their All Black ace Richie Mo’unga, who hasn’t appeared since round two but returns against Shizuoka, the defending champions are purring along nicely, unbeaten in their last 13 outings; a run which includes a 59-20 hammering of the Blue Revs last May.

Toshiba also beat the Blue Revs earlier last season, with star winger Jone Naikabula scoring four tries in their 43-30 win, before adding two more in the later game.

Naikabula promises to be a major threat again, with the 30-year-old Brave Blossoms international warming into the season nicely after scoring in each of the last three games.

Saturday’s other matches see a Ricoh Black Rams outfit who have been gallant in each of their losses to Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Toyota Verblitz, trip across the capital to Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay’s Edogawa Athletic Stadium fortress, a venue where the 2022-23 champions are almost impregnable.

Although the Spears have been playing well, missed opportunities against the Wild Knights and last weekend against Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath, mean they are already eight points behind Saitama, despite having lost just once.

Frans Ludeke’s men have been boosted by the arrival of All Black outside back Shaun Stevenson on a season-long loan. Stevenson will make his debut off the bench in a game Kubota dare not lose, lest they give up more ground on the leaders.
Yokohama are in similar territory, only above the fifth-placed Spears on point’s differentials, although they are gaining momentum after a slow start, with Faf de Klerk’s side having won their last two.

The Eagles entertain Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars on Saturday, with the seventh-placed visitors looking up the point’s table, and not down, after Sunday’s shock win over Kobe.

Glenn Delaney’s men have been inspired by the arrival of Springbok winger Kurt-Lee Arense, whose expertise in taking try- scoring opportunities – he has four from as many appearances – has given the group a sense of belief that was missing at times last term when they narrowly avoided being sucked into the promotion/relegation series.

Mie Honda Heat were forced to defend their Division One status in that series, with Argentinian Pablo Matera a big factor in their narrow escape from relegation, the former Los Pumas skipper has again been a major influence.

They will have to deny an opponent who put 94 points on them across two matches last term, although times have certainly changed, with new Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath coach Kosei Ono still to celebrate his first win after draws against Toyota Verblitz and the Spears.

The last time Sungoliath won a regular season match was eight games ago, ironically against Sunday’s opponents.

Languishing 11th on the ladder, Sungoliath will need to get moving quickly before the gap to sixth place, and the last qualifying position for the playoffs, becomes too great.

That position is currently held by their hosts at Suzuka Gardens.

Sunday’s third game takes Verblitz to Kyushu as the ‘home’ team for a difficult engagement with the Wild Knights.

Despite boasting the likes of Kieran Read, Michael Hooper, Beauden Barrett, Joe Launchbury, Pieter Steph du Toit, Aaron Smith and Kazuki Himeno in recent seasons, Verblitz has lost to the men in blue on all seven occasions since rugby resumed in Japan after Covid, conceding 40+ points five times.

This includes in last year’s spectacular capitulation at Kumagaya where the visitors jumped ahead 27-8 at halftime, with centre Viliame Tuidraki bagging a hattrick, before folding in the second period as the Wild Knights waltzed to a 43-27 win.

It was no better in the return match, where Toyota failed to fire a shot and was swatted aside 40-7.

With flyhalf Rikiya Matsuda having swapped sides after playing 87 games, winning two titles, and scoring 788 points for the Wild Knights, Verblitz Director of Rugby Steve Hansen will be hoping the ex-Brave Blossoms international is the missing link as he looks to get one over his old boss at the Crusaders, Robbie Deans, for the first time since his arrival in Japanese club rugby following the 2019 World Cup.

Rikiya Matsuda of Toyota Verblitz

Divisions Two & Three

Will it be three wins out of the last four for Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi against NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu in the feature clash of Division Two on Saturday at Aichi’s Wave Stadium Kariya?

The Shuttles won two out of the three games between the teams last term, and have started the new campaign well, led by their talisman, flyhalf Freddie Burns.

Wayne Pivac’s Green Rockets have also made a good start, with both sides only defeat coming against section leaders, Red Hurricanes Osaka, although the visitors are two points ahead of the Shuttles on the table due to bonus points from their big wins over Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves and Hino Red Dolphins.

They arrive without test man Rhys Patchell though, which has robbed the game of a head-to-head battle of the Severn Bridge between the Welsh international and his English test counterpart Burns and also puts the pressure on the Green Rockets stand in flyhalf Ko Yoshimura, in what will be just his sixth game in the league.

After losing their unbeaten record in surprise circumstances against the Seawaves, Lima Sopoaga’s Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks now face a trip to Yanmar Stadium Nagai where the Red Hurricanes will be looking to extend a winning run which currently stands at six, dating back to the final two matches of last term.

While still winless, Division Three champions Hino Red Dolphins are just one point behind the visiting Kyuden Voltex in the section’s third game, with fellow winless side, Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, visiting the Seawaves on January 25.

Third and the highest finisher among the teams in Division Three who were unable to achieve promotion last season, coach Wycliff Palu must be wondering what has gone wrong, with the ex-Wallaby’s Kurita Water Gush Akishima currently only off the bottom of the table courtesy of a 12-point better differential than newcomers LeRIRO Fukuoka.

The desperation of both to breakthrough for a first win at the fourth attempt adds an edge to their clash in Tokyo.

Unbeaten Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima welcome a Yakalt Levins Toda side that lost its unbeaten record last weekend against Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions, while Sunday’s third match at Yamaguchi sees the Red Regulions – who have recovered well from their opening day derby mauling – present a major challenge for Sayama Secom Rugguts.

The Rugguts have made a good impression to date, although this is the first away day of their maiden league journey.