Japan Rugby League One 2025-26 Round 11 Preview

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 Hyogo 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 four 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.
There are four matches in the lower sections, the highlight of which comes on Sunday when Nippon Steel
Kamaishi Seawaves host RedHurricanes Osaka for the annual earthquake remembrance fixture at Kamaishi
Unosumai Memorial Stadium.
The occasion sees rugby mark the 15th anniversary of the devastating 2011 earthquake and follow up tsunami
which struck the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures on March 11 of that year, claiming an estimated 20,000
lives and causing widespread damage in Kamaishi and throughout the three prefectures.
Even though the emotions of the occasion have sometimes got the better of the Seawaves on Memorial day, and
they have not been seen at their best, the locals mastered it last season when they beat the RedHurricanes 35-24
and will be hoping for more of the same as they look to continue the run of success in what is already their best
ever season in League One.
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.

Japan Rugby League One Round 11 Schedule (all kick offs, Japan Time)

Division One

Saturday March 14
Kubota Spears v Saitama Wild Knights; at Tokyo (Chichibu), 12pm
Mie Honda Heat v Yokohama Canon Eagles; at Tochigi, 1pm
BlackRams Tokyo v Shizuoka BlueRevs; at Tokyo (Komazawa), 1pm
Kobelco Kobe Steelers v Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars; at Hyogo, 2.30pm
Sunday March 15
Toyota Verblitz v Urayasu D-Rocks; at Aichi, 2.05pm
Tokyo Sungoliath v Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo; at Tokyo (Chichibu), 2.30pm
Division Two

Saturday March 14
Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex v Hanazono Kintetsu Liners; at Fukuoka, 2.30pm
Shimizu Corporation Koto Blue Sharks v Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi; at Tokyo (Yumenoshima), 2.30pm
Sunday March 15
Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves v RedHurricanes Osaka; at Iwate, 1pm
Division Three

Sunday March 15
Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions v Kurita Water Gush Akishima; at Hiroshima, 1pm