Official Preview: Japan Rugby League One 2025-26, Round Three

If a week is a long-time in sport, 12 months must feel a lifetime for Japan’s flyhalf from the ‘Miracle of Brighton’,
Kosei Ono.
Appointed boss of Tokyo Sungoliath, the club he had served faithfully for eight years as a player, Ono had yet to
experience a win as a head coach in Japan Rugby League One this time last term and had to wait until mid-January
before that milestone was finally achieved.
Not so, this time.
With international stars Cheslin Kolbe, Sean McMahon and Sam Cane starting off in top gear, and wrecking ball
Tongan-born backrower Tevita Tatafu making an impact after returning from his stint in France with European
champions Bordeaux, Sungoliath have hit the ground running with two wins, so life in western Tokyo at this
moment is pretty good.
Kubota Spears will be looking to change that.
A point behind Saturday’s opponents on the log, but likewise unbeaten, Frans Ludeke’s team have been tested and
overcome adversity in each of their wins over Kobelco Kobe Steelers and BlackRams Tokyo.
New World Rugby Player of the Year Malcolm Marx has not let the award distract him from getting straight down
to business, playing all but three of the available 160 minutes so far, the Spears also have a settled roster and –
even more importantly – know how to win.
Having been beaten just twice since the start of last season, Kubota are a side with a relentless mentality and
seldom get flustered.
Ominously for Ono, the Spears are no longer a ‘bunny’ for Sungoliath, who had beaten them 14-straight before
Kubota tipped that record on its head with a three-game whitewash in their title-winning 2022-23 season.

The hattrick precipitated a role reversal between the two, with the Spears now having lost just one of the last
eight against Sungoliath.
The clash between the teams currently placed first and third kicks off a bumper post-Christmas weekend which is
also notable for matchups between Kobelco Kobe Steelers and Toyota Verblitz, as well as Yokohama Eagles against
Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, where the rival coaches share an interesting backstory.
Dave Rennie’s Kobe beat the Ian Foster co-coached Verblitz 63-21 on the latter’s arrival in League One last year,
renewing a rivalry between the two that had previously been on show in the Bledisloe Cup with Rennie at the
helm of the Wallabies, while Foster guided the All Blacks.
While Kobe got off the ‘mark’ last time, eclipsing Mie Honda Heat, the former Australian coach needs to coax
more consistency out of his men, with the Steelers having bounced between win and loss through a sequence of
their last eight matches.
The relationship between Yokohama’s new boss Leon MacDonald and Brave Lupus supremo Todd Blackadder is of
a different nature, with the men being two of the key pillars in the foundation of a dynasty in Super Rugby with
the Crusaders that is still dominant 30 years later.
The pair are widely regarded as two of the greatest players ever to have donned the famed red and black jersey
sported by the Christchurch-based team.
It’s early days but Yokohama’s new head man needs to instill some of that renowned Crusaders resilience into his
charges who, coupled with the back end of last season, have now lost six-in-a-row, which is the Eagles’ worst run
of consecutive defeats since they were beaten eight times through the 2014 and 15 period.
Despite two decent performances first up, BlackRams Tokyo and Mie Honda Heat are both still winless, and will be
looking to break their ‘duck’ when they get together to get the weekend started, while Shizuoka BlueRevs and
Urayasu D-Rocks are also coming off defeats ahead of a tussle to kick off Sunday that reeks of unpredictability, and
potentially plenty of points.
While history favours the BlueRevs who have won the last eight, last season the pair combined to produce a
remarkable 62-52 scoreline, which was the first time in the Japanese league that both sides had topped 50 in a
game.
Fresh from an impressive performance to best Yokohama in the Kanagawa derby, Mitsubishi Sagamihara
Dynaboars will now try their luck against the unbeaten Saitama Wild Knights, buoyed by the news that All Black
scrumhalf Brad Weber, the club’s new signing, has been cleared for a possible debut.

The Dynaboars may need him.
Not only have Saitama made a super start under new boss Atsushi Kanazawa, they have also won their last seven
appointments with Sagamihara, averaging 57 points per game.
There is no play in the lower sections apart from at Iwaki where the Iron Man of the North, Nippon Steel Kamaishi
Seawaves, welcomes Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex.
Both sides have won one, and lost one, to start the new season in Division Two.