Official Review - Japan Rugby League One (Round Four)

Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights moved two points clear at the top of the table, and to within one of becoming the first
to record 50 regular season wins in Japan Rugby League One, following a dramatic 48-24 win over Mie Honda Heat at
Kumagaya today.
The Wild Knights took charge of the contest in the first half, with winger Koki Takeyama scoring a first half hattrick, among
five tries as the home side forged to a 33-5 lead.
Heat responded after halftime, and threatened to make a game of it after they scored three tries in 13 minutes – with
veteran Brave Blossoms winger Lemeki Lomano Lava also completing a hattrick – to narrow the gap to nine heading into
the final 20 minutes.
They couldn’t get any closer though, as the Wild Knights calmly negotiated the back end of the game, edging ahead 41-
24 before Heat self-destructed when Los Pumas backrower Pablo Matera (red) and centre Kyogo Okano (yellow) were
both dismissed for dangerous play in the last 10 minutes, the Argentine for illegal head contact.
By finishing with seven tries, Saitama picked up a third try-scoring bonus for the season.
While Japan’s six-time champions head the standings, the club which has won five titles is in the unfamiliar position of
being second from bottom, after Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath was held to its second draw in as many weeks – and third from
the last nine games – by Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay.
On a nervy afternoon where both sides will feel they should have closed it out, the Spears overturned a 14-0 deficit by
scoring three tries in the last 15 minutes of the first half to lead 21-14, before the teams traded tries after the break.
When replacement hooker Kienori Go scored the game’s last try in the 79th minute, Suntory’s 23-year-old flyhalf Mikiya

Takamoto – who bagged the contest’s opening try – had the chance to win it, but the conversion attempt missed, leaving
his side still chasing that elusive first win as the competition heads into its fifth week.
On a great weekend for South African test men, winger Kurt-Lee Arendse scored twice to lead Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Sagamihara Dynaboars to an upset 34-26 win over Kobelco Kobe Steelers.
The 28-year-old opened today’s scoring at Gion Stadium with the game’s first two tries, joining fellow Springboks Jesse
Kriel (two), Kwagga Smith (one), Cheslin Kolbe (one) and Damien de Allende (one) who each crossed the goal-line over
the weekend.
Arendse, who has now scored four tries in as many appearances in Japan, helped the Dynaboars to a commanding 24-7
halftime advantage, which they extended to 34-7 before Kobe skipper Brodie Retallick began the Steelers’ late rally which
fell just short of a bonus point.
The All Blacks’ third try of the season, as well as two from the Hamilton (New Zealand) schooled Brave Blossoms
backrower Tiennan Costley, helped close Kobe to within eight points with seven minutes remaining, but the Dynaboars
held them at bay, leaving the visitors to depart pointless for their afternoon’s labour.

Saturday saw Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo extend an unbeaten record for the campaign, while Shizuoka Blue Revs lost
theirs, after matches with contrasting scorelines.
Having conceded a league-high 19 tries across their opening three appearances in Division One, Urayasu D-Rocks
tightened their defensive lines considerably against the champions, conceding just three in a plucky 22-14 defeat.
Last season’s Division Two winners even gave themselves a shot at an upset when Israel Folau’s first try of the season –
the 16th of his Japan Rugby League One career – closed Urayasu to within five points of Brave Lupus with six minutes to
play.
A penalty goal three minutes later by flyhalf Takuro Matsunaga, again deputising for Richie Mo’unga, closed that door, as
well as denying what would have been a deserved losing bonus point, but there were still plenty of positives for D-Rocks
coach Greig Laidlaw to take from an afternoon where they out-scored Todd Blackadder’s men 14-12 in the second half.
Blue Revs also out-scored their opponents in the second period, but by then the damage had already been done, with
try-scoring doubles by Kriel and Brave Blossoms utility forward Sione Halasili leading Yokohama Canon Eagles to a
convincing 53-35 win.

Despite a try in each half from Malo Tuitama – which carried the Blue Revs winger’s tally to eight in three weeks – the
closest Shizuoka got to Yokohama was 11 points with seven minutes to play before Kriel scored the last of the afternoon’s
13 tries to round out the Eagles’ second win of the season.
While it was the Blue Revs’ first loss in four outings, of greater concern to the Shizuoka brains trust is probably that they
have conceded 87 points over the last two weekends, after having let in just 32 during earlier wins over Kobe and D-Rocks.
At Gifu, Toyota Verblitz secured their maiden win after coming from behind to beat Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo 32-18.
Verblitz had tripped up in the last moments of their previous three matches, but this time they finished the stronger of
the protagonists, scoring two tries in the final 10 minutes after the Black Rams had entered that period leading 18-15.
Steve Hansen’s men, who trailed 10-0 at halftime, were aided by the second try-scoring double of the season by deadly
winger Taichi Takahashi, who has now scored 23 tries in his last 30 appearances wearing the club’s olive-green jersey.