RUGBY IN JAPAN VO.11, No.38

RiJ: Vol.11 No.38, 23 September 2014

RiJ looks at the fifth round of the new season of Top League this issue.

Enjoy the read.

CONTENTS

• Top League 2014-15:
  -Stage One, Round Five
• Into The Future

 

Japan Rugby Top League 2014-15

Stage One Round Five

Pool A

Date	Team	Score	Team	K/O	Venue
Sat, 20 Sep 2014	Toyota Industries (2Ts)	10-35	Toshiba (4Ts)	16:40	Mizuho, Nagoya
Sun, 21 Sep 2014	NTT Comm. (4Ts)	32-31	NEC (5Ts)	13:00	Ishinomaki, Miyagi
	Panasonic (12Ts)	80-7	Sanix (1T)	15:00	Ashikaga, Tochigi
	Kubota (4Ts)	28-28	Yamaha (4Ts)	15:00	Niigata, Niigata

Pool B

Date	Team	Score	Team	K/O	Venue
Fri, 19 Sep 2014	Suntory (3Ts)	22-29	Kobe (4Ts)	19:30	Chichibu, Tokyo
Sat, 20 Sep 2014	Ricoh (8Ts)	53-5	Coca-Cola (1T)	16:40	Chichibu, Tokyo
	Canon (4Ts)	24-10	NTT Docomo (2Ts)	19:00	Chichibu, Tokyo
	Toyota (4Ts)	31-38	Kintetsu (4Ts)	19:00	Mizuho, Nagoya

Stage One Round Five Wrap-up

Pool A

On Saturday, in the first game of a double header at the Mizuho Rugby Park in Nagoya, Toyota Industries Shuttles lost to Toshiba Brave Lupus 35-10. Consequently, with the bonus-point win, Toshiba stay near the top of the pool table while the Shuttles are on the bottom despite the hometown advantage with this game. Toshiba were playing their first game away from Chichibu this season, but that did not seem to bother them as they dominated their rivals from beginning to end. Flanker Steven Bates led from the front, scoring three of the four team tries to walk away with the man of the match award. In a cautious first half that saw five attempts at penalty, the Brave Lupus took an 11-0 lead into the break. This became a 28-0 lead midway through the latter half before the Shuttles picked up a couple of tries and Toshiba crossed for a late five pointer to secure the extra point.

On Sunday, NTT Communications Shining Arcs and NEC Green Rockets headed north to Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture for this clash. In a helter-skelter match, the result came down to a rare Top League drop goal from Arcs five-eighth Elton Jantjies late in the game to hand his side a slender 32-31 win. NEC led 12-0 early in the match, but NTT dominated the game before and after halftime to lead 29-12 by the hour mark. The Rockets bounced back with three tries in the space of five minutes to hit the front 31-29, but Jantjies potted three points in the thirty-fifth minute and from there the Arcs did enough to hold on until the full-time hooter. The win-loss trend continues for the Shining Arcs with their third win in five games keeping them in the top half of the table. The Rockets suffered their fourth loss, putting a big dent in their hopes of finishing in the top four.

In Ashikaga city in Tochigi prefecture on Sunday afternoon, Panasonic Wild Knights were close to home for this encounter with Munakata Sanix Blues. The Knights were looking for a four-try bonus point and a big win to improve their differential, so the Blues had to front up in defence for the full eighty minutes. However, the Blues failed in this regard with the Knights in devastating form running in twelve tries to rack up the highest score of the season. Interestingly, Sanix led 7-0 after the first ten minutes of play but after that, Panasonic ran riot with right wing Tomoki Kitagawa crossing for four tries while flanker George Whitelock brought up a hat trick. The Wild knights scored at a point a minute with the scorekeeper kept on his toes throughout.

In the final game in this pool in round five, Kubota Spears and Yamaha Jubilo travelled to Niigata city in the prefecture of the same name for this match where they played out the first draw of the season. Kubota led 28-21 late in the game, but a try to No8 Kyosuke Horie in the thirty-first minute converted by fullback Ayumu Goromaru tied up the score at 28-all. Neither side could add to the scoreboard in the remaining time with both combatants taking two points for the draw along with a four-try bonus point. Yamaha lose top side on the table as a result while the points give Kubota a chance of making the top four with two rounds to play in the pool stages.

Pool B

On Friday evening at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo, Suntory Sungoliath went down to Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers 29-22 in the match of the round. Suntory have had the edge over Kobe in big matches over the past few seasons and this win by the Steelers indicates they are serious title contenders this year. Suntory led 7-3 at the break and the Steelers levelled the scores at 10-all early in the latter half, but two quick Kobe tries pushed out the difference to 22-10. A converted try to flanker Takamichi Sasaki in the twenty-second minute narrowed the gap to 22-10, but Kobe made sure of the result with the bonus-point try in the thirty-seventh minute. Suntory finished the scoring with a try at the death to ensure at least a losing bonus point.

On Saturday, in the first game of a double header at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo, Ricoh Black Rams comprehensively beat Coca-Cola West Red Sparks 53-5. After four straight losses, the Black Rams finally found form with this impressive eight tries to one victory over the Red Sparks. Ricoh did all the scoring in the first half with four tries giving the Rams a 27-0 lead at halftime. A further try followed early in the second half before lock Yusaku Kuwazuru finally got Coca-Cola on the board with a try in the ninth minute. That was not the end of the pain for the Sparks, however, as Ricoh ran in another three tries to blow out the final score line.

In the second game at Chichibu, Canon Eagles beat NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes 24-10. The Eagles notched up their third win of the season and capped it off with a bonus point to keep them in the hunt for a top-four finish. Flanker Adam Thomson touched down for his sixth try of the season as the Eagles led 7-5 at the break, but it left everything to play for in the second half. A penalty try in the tenth minute pushed out the lead to 14-5, but the Red Hurricanes struck back with a try on the hour to close the gap to 14-10. Canon finished the stronger though, with tries to fullback Naoki Moriya and replacement Michael Bond closing out the game. NTT Docomo are now the only side in either pool without a win after five rounds.

In the second game at Mizuho in Nagoya, Toyota Verblitz lost to Kintetsu Liners 38-31. Toyota have not been playing at their best but they were still coming up with wins to hold onto third place on the table, that is, before they encountered Kintetsu. The scoreboard was locked at 17-all at halftime before Toyota got out to a slender 25-24 lead midway through the second half. However, a penalty to Yasumasa Shigemitsu and a penalty try gave the Liners a 35-24 lead going into the final ten minutes of play. The result was gone, but a late try enabled the Verblitz to at least walk away with two bonus point.

Pool A

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	BP1	BP2	Pts
1	Toshiba	5	4	0	1	145	101	44	3	1	20
2	Panasonic	5	4	0	1	221	82	139	3	0	19
3	Yamaha	5	3	1	1	182	70	112	4	1	19
4	NTT Comm.	5	3	0	2	130	100	30	2	2	16
5	Kubota	5	2	1	2	105	144	-39	1	0	11
6	NEC	5	1	0	4	119	156	-37	2	3	9
7	Toyota Industries	5	1	0	4	61	171	-110	1	0	5
8	Sanix	5	1	0	4	80	219	-139	0	0	5

Pool B

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	BP1	BP2	Pts
1	Kobe	5	5	0	0	141	68	73	3	0	23
2	Suntory	5	4	0	1	110	95	15	1	1	18
3	Canon	5	3	0	2	126	105	21	2	2	17
4	Toyota	5	3	0	2	120	109	11	2	2	16
5	Kintetsu	5	3	0	2	121	133	-12	2	1	15
6	Ricoh	5	1	0	4	140	123	17	1	3	8
7	Coca-Cola	5	1	0	4	56	135	-79	0	2	6
8	NTT Docomo	5	0	0	5	81	127	-46	1	2	3

Four points for win, two for draw, one bonus point for four tries or more (BP1) and one bonus point for losing by seven or less (BP2).

Leading Point Scorers

At the completion Stage 1, Round 5, Toshiba halfback Takahiro Ogawa tops the point scorers list with 62 points.

	Name	Team	T	G	PG	DG	Pts
1	Takahiro Ogawa	Toshiba	1	12	11	0	62
2	Daniel Peters	Ricoh	2	13	8	0	60
3	Ayumu Goromaru	Yamaha	0	18	7	0	57
4	Takaya Monji	Toyota	1	13	8	0	55
5	Yasumasa Shigemitsu	Kintetsu	1	12	8	0	53
6	Elton Jantjies	NTT Comm.	0	9	9	1	48
7	Tadahiro Miwa	Panasonic	1	13	5	0	46
7	Ryohei Mitomo	Canon	1	13	5	0	46
9	Harumichi Tatekawa	Kubota	0	9	9	0	45
10	Berrick Barnes	Panasonic	1	7	8	0	43

Leading Try Scorers

At the completion Stage 1, Round 5, Canon back rower Adam Thomson and Ricoh wing Daisuke Komatsu top the try scorers list with six tries.

	Name	Team	Tries
1	Adam Thomson	Canon	6
1	Daisuke Komatsu	Ricoh	6
3	Yoshimi Watanabe	NTT Docomo	5
4	Steven Bates	Toshiba	4
4	Kyosuke Horie	Yamaha	4
4	Deryck Thomas	Toyota	4
4	Tomoki Kitagawa	Panasonic	4
4	Takaaki Nakazuru	Suntory	4
4	Mose Tuiali’i	Yamaha	4
4	Siale Piutau	Yamaha	4

Stage 1, Round 5 Man-of-the-match Awards

	Group	Teams	Score	Teams	MOTM
Fri 19 Sep 2014	B	Suntory	22-29	Kobe	Ryohei Yamanaka,
					Kobe No.10
Sat 20 Sep 2014	B	Ricoh	53-5	Coca-Cola	Daniel Peters,
					Ricoh No.15
	B	Canon	24-10	NTT Docomo	Takatoshi Sugawara,
					Canon No.1
	A	Toyota Industries	10-35	Toshiba	Steven Bates,
					Toshiba No.7
	B	Toyota	31-38	Kintetsu	Daiki Toyota,
					Kintetsu No.1
Sun 21 Sep 2014	A	NTT Comm.	32-31	NEC	Elton Jantjies,
					NTT Comm. No.10
	A	Panasonic	80-7	Sanix	Tomoki Kitagawa,
					Panasonic No.14
	A	Kubota	28-28	Yamaha	Phillip Finau,
					Kubota No.7

Into the Future

With the IRB working towards re-introducing traditional long tours there will be spin-offs for Japan in the lead-up to this country hosting the 2019 RWC. Although it is not set in concrete, a bevy of tier one countries are pencilled in to tour Japan with Scotland in 2016, Ireland in 2017 and Italy in 2018.