Watch: Willie Le Roux's sublime performance in the opening round of the Top League
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World Cup-winning fullback Willie Le Roux starred in his return to the Top League on Sunday despite his side narrowly losing 31-29 to Yamaha Jubilo.
Le Roux enjoyed a stint with Canon Eagles before joining Wasps but returned to Japan following the World Cup with his new side Toyota Verblitz who are now headed up by former All Black coach Steve Hansen who is the side's Director of Rugby.
Le Roux faced off against fellow World Cup-winning member Kwagga Smith and joined fellow South Africans Carl Wegner and Lionel Cronje in the Verblitz side who also had All Blacks' Kieran Read making his Top League debut.
Read and Le Roux combined early on to set up a try for the latter from a scrum with Jamie Henry producing an excellent offload for Le Roux to score out wide.
Le Roux repaid the favour to Henry with a great skip pass out to the winger to score in the same corner Le Roux scored.
He almost set up a try for Verblitz's other winger Taichi Takahashi but Sione Tuipulotu slapped the ball down resulting in a penalty try for Verblitz.
Le Roux had a hand in another try as his quick hands put Takahashi away down the touchline before he put Cronje through to score.
He filled in at scrumhalf and offloaded to set up Henry's second try before he almost created the match-winning try if it weren't for Kwagga's Smith brilliance at the breakdown.