Japan Rugby League One Round Nine Official Preview

Is this the biggest test?

League leaders, Saitama Wild Knights, might be unbeaten this season, and the winners of 71 matches from 82 outings since Japan Rugby League One inaugurated five years ago, but seldom have they faced a challenge to their regular season supremacy quite like that waiting for them in Hyogo.

In Kobelco Kobe Steelers, they meet a star-studded opponent, at the top of their game, with home advantage, and buoyed by an epic victory last time out.

It’s a showdown which could yet be a forerunner to the championship final.

While there are other contenders – most notably Kubota Spears and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo – who will have something to say about that, there is no doubt that Saturday’s clash of the two heavyweights could have repercussions long after the final whistle is blown.

After toppling the Wild Knights in last season’s third place playoff, Dave Rennie’s Kobe have lost just once since, and while his links to the vacant All Black coaching position had the potential to distract, his side’s results suggest that it has not been the case.

Skipper Brodie Retallick, remarkably the competition’s leading try-scorer with nine, backrower Ardie Savea, and new arrival Anton Lienert-Brown, have all been superb, leading a group that is hungry for success after its constant improvement in the three years since Rennie took charge.

Going back-to-back against Saitama for the first time would be another huge step.

Incredibly, prior to last term’s playoff success, Kobe had not beaten the Wild Knight since their first meeting in the opening season of Top League in 2003, when the men from Kansai prevailed 53-21.

The Wild Knights will lack nothing in motivation themselves, stung by last season’s dramatic reversal in fortunes when, having topped the log in the regular season, they crashed and burned in the playoffs after consecutive defeats.

Although the departure of long-time mentor Robbie Deans – who remains an advisor – could have been destructive, under his long-time assistant Atsushi Kanazawa’s sure hand, little appears to have changed.

Kanazawa’s debut as boss produced a remarkable 46-0 dismantling of champions Brave Lupus, and while tested in recent weeks by both BlackRams Tokyo and Toyota Verblitz, his charges found a way to win on each occasion, showing they still have the adaptability to win ‘ugly’ when not dazzling opponents with raw power, speed and attacking ruthlessness.

Assistant coaches and former title-winning stalwarts as players, Shota Horie (forwards) and Berrick Barnes (backs) have undoubtedly contributed to the continuation of the team’s success, showing that the Wild Knights have been able to manage their generational change off the field, as well as they generally have, on it.

The clash between first and third on the championship ladder will be watched closely by all, but most notably by the side ranked between them, Kubota Spears, who could rise to the summit if the Wild Knights lose, and they turn away their 24th consecutive visitor to Spears Edoriku Field.

The Spears are on a run of 16 games unbeaten at all home venues, which is the longest sequence the club has ever achieved.

Frans Ludeke’s men once again showed their ability to figure out solutions when in difficulty last weekend, successfully navigating a stern test at Shizuoka, where the BlueRevs appeared to be in business after hauling themselves back from an early deficit to close to within two points shortly after the break.

With ex-Wallaby flyhalf Bernard Foley the first to 100 points for the season, and impressive Brave Blossoms backrower Faulua Makisi second on the try-scoring rankings with eight – five of which have come in the last two weeks – Kubota are building up ominous momentum.

All of which makes the mountain Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars must climb formidable, even if Glenn Delaney’s men will have reported to training on Monday with a spring in their step after fighting their way back from 34-22 down to beat Mie Honda Heat, picking up just their second win from the last 10 outings in the process.

The only side to beat Kubota thus far, Brave Lupus, arrive for their appointment with Verblitz at Aichi’s Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium in unfamiliar territory, coming off successive defeats.

While last weekend’s 34-33 loss to Kobe will have hurt, coach Todd Blackadder will nonetheless have taken encouragement from how his side battled back from 27-7 down to get within a missed conversion of the spoils.

Any psychological scars that exist within the Toshiba camp could be banished quickly, despite their bottom-placed opponents having shown fierce resistance against the Wild Knights, taking a nine-point lead shortly after halftime before being overrun.

Verblitz Director of Rugby Steve Hansen, who joined forces with Blackadder in a coach/captain partnership as Canterbury swept to the 2001 national provincial championship in New Zealand, has presided over just one win this season.

Ominously, he has lost each of his five League One matches opposing his former lieutenants’, Brave Lupus.

Honda, who had been seeking three wins in a row for the first time since they returned to Division One when beaten by the Dynaboars, host Shizuoka BlueRevs on Sunday in the first leg of the afternoon’s double-header.

The matchup between the two clubs with strong affiliation to the world of motorcycle racing (the BlueRevs were previously known as Yamaha) should provide a good gauge as to how both sides are realistically traveling with the bigger picture in mind.

With six playoff spots up for grabs, Kieran Crowley’s ninth-placed Heat are still in the conversation at the regular season’s halfway point, although Shizuoka, in seventh, are one of the sides who will be looking to deny them the opportunity.

Even though they are just three points from the top six, an inconsistency that was absent during last season’s run to fourth in the regular season has dogged Shizuoka this time, with beating sides ranked below them almost non-negotiable now if they are to return to the playoffs again.

This includes Honda, against whom the BlueRevs have won their last seven matches, by an average winning margin of 26 points.

Ricoh BlackRams Tokyo leap frogged Shizuoka on the championship table last weekend when they could not have been more impressive as they routed Yokohama Canon Eagles with a 40-point second half in the Photocopy derby.

It was a slick performance that had been coming after a solid body of work through the first half of the season, providing the type of confidence that makes it a bad time for Urayasu D-Rocks – winless in their last four – to visit.

While outclassed by Tokyo Sungoliath last weekend, the hattrick scored by Israel Folau – just his second in five years in Japan – at least offered promise that their injury-plagued star man is still up for the challenge.

D-Rocks need much more from Folau.

The second half of Sunday’s double act offers Sungoliath the opportunity to further cement their top six spot against the second-from-bottom Eagles.

International stars Cheslin Kolbe and Sam Cane were both try-scorers last weekend as Sungoliath showed a level of ruthlessness which will have delighted boss Kosei Ono as his side continues to build encouraging momentum.

Sungoliath went down by just two points to Kobe, and one against the Wild Knights, with two wins in-between, to firmly distance themselves from their abject display in January’s 59-point defeat by the Spears.

While the Eagles are battling, they often save their best for Sungoliath, having won three of the last four matches between the sides.

Five of the last six between the pair have been decided by single digit margins.

Nippon Steel Kamaishi Seawaves return after a month on the sidelines in Division Two, when they face RedHurricanes Osaka.

The break, due to byes and a snow-enforced cancellation, came at an unfortunate time given the Seawaves had just upset Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi.

They return against an opponent who cracked their first win for the season last weekend.

Green Rockets, who find themselves in the unusual position of third from bottom, complete the split round in the section against winless Hino Red Dolphins on Sunday.

There is a full round of matches in Division Three.