RUGBY IN JAPAN NEWSLETTER Volume 9, Nos.48 & 49

Enjoy the read.

Ian McDonnell lives and works in Japan. He can be contacted at ianmcdo@apost.plala.or.jp

CONTENTS

• Japan Rugby Top League Round 9
• University Rugby 2012

Japan Rugby Top League 2012-13
Round Nine

Round Nine

Date	Team	Score	Team	K/O	Venue
Sat, 01 Dec 2012	Toshiba (2Ts)	17-14	Yamaha (2Ts)	13:00	Kumagaya, Saitama
	Suntory (8Ts)	48-14	NTT Docomo (2Ts)	13:00	Kofu, Yamanashi
Sun, 02 Dec 2012	NTT Comm. (1T)	5-48	Kobe (6Ts)	12:00	Hanazono, Osaka
	Kintetsu (3Ts)	19-17	Ricoh (2Ts)	14:00	Hanazono, Osaka
	Panasonic (5Ts)	40-17	Toyota (2Ts)	13:00	Ota, Gunma
	Sanix (1T)	10-23	Canon (3Ts)	13:00	Global, Fukuoka
	Kyuden (2Ts)	18-55	NEC (8Ts)	14:00	Kumamoto, Kumamoto

Round Nine Preview

At the Kumagaya Rugby Park in Kumagaya city, Saitama prefecture on Saturday afternoon, Toshiba Brave Lupus play Yamaha Jubilo. Toshiba started the season with four wins before losing to Toyota in round five. The Brave Lupus followed up with two more wins before losing to Ricoh for the first time in Top League in round eight to sit in third place on the table on 30 points. Yamaha also opened the year with four wins but losses to Kobe and Panasonic halted their progress before wins over the struggling Kyuden and then Canon last round. Jubilo are two points behind Toshiba in fourth spot on the table and they will have to keep winning to enhance their prospects of making the play-offs.

In the only other Saturday game, in Kofu city in Yamanashi prefecture, unbeaten Suntory Sungoliath play NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes. The Sungoliath have had eight wins from eight starts to sit alone on top of the table on 39 points as the league pacesetters and they will be formidable opponents for the Hurricanes. In total contrast, NTT Docomo are struggling for form this season losing eight straight games to sit on the bottom of the table and as the only team in the league without a win up against the only team in the league without a loss it may be a long afternoon in the park.

On Sunday, In the first game of a double header at the Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Ground in Osaka, NTT Communications Shining Arcs play Kobelco Steelers. The Shining Arcs are the big improvers this season and with five wins and 22 competition points from the opening eight rounds currently sit in sixth place and with the wind in their sails they will be looking to take the game to Kobe. As the inaugural Top League champions back in 2003-4, Kobe have had a solid start to their season with 7 wins and a draw to sit in outright second position on the table on 35 points and they will be looking to continue the momentum against the energetic NTT Comm. outfit.

In the second game in Osaka. Kintetsu Liners play Ricoh Black Rams. Kintetsu have had an up and down season winning three and losing five to be in ninth place on 17 points. On the other hand, Ricoh had a tough start to the season with four losses but turned things around remarkably with four wins on the trot including the scalp of Toshiba in their last start. Ricoh had never beaten Toshiba in their eight previous meetings in Top League but held on to win 28-26 in Mito city in Ibaraki prefecture. Ricoh are one place above Kintetsu on the table on 20 points and with the Liners under increasing pressure to come up with wins, the Black Rams will be in for a challenge in this away game clash.

At the Ota City Athletic Park in Gunma, Panasonic Wild Knights host Toyota Verblitz. Panasonic have had a roller coaster ride over the first half of the season with five wins and three losses to sit in sixth place on the table on 25 points. The topsy turvy season for Toyota continues as they have had five wins, a draw and two losses to be in seventh place on 23 points. A loss will not be on the agenda for either of these high pedigree sides as to lose could well spell the end of the ambitions of making the play-offs.

At the Global Arena Stadium in Munakata city, Fukuoka prefecture, Fukuoka Sanix Blues are at home to face Canon Eagles. Sanix had a positive start to the season with a win over Kyuden in the opening round but have since lost seven on the trot over the ensuing rounds to languish in second to last place on 6 points. As the new kids on the block, Canon started life in Top League with a win over NTT Docomo and a second win against Kyuden sees them in tenth place on 12 points despite suffering six losses along the way. Consequently, both sides will be targeting this game for a win and the Blues will be banking on home ground advantage to get them across the line.

In the final game in round nine, Kyushu based Kyuden Voltex are on home soil in Kumamoto to play NEC Green Rockets. After fighting their way back into Top League this season, Kyuden had seven straight losses in their first season back in the top flight after two seasons in the Kyushu league before crucially coming up with a win over NTT Docomo last round but are well down the table in twelfth place on 8 points. NEC have had a disappointing first half to the season with two wins and six losses to drop to eleventh place on the table on 11 points. The Green Rockets finished fourth last season and made the play-offs for the first time but prospects of repeating that feat are now a dream.

Round Nine Wrap-up

After the ninth round of the 2012-13 Japan Rugby Top League season played on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 December 2012, unbeaten Suntory Sungoliath sit on top of the table with 44 points followed by Kobelco Steelers who are still unbeaten after eight wins and a draw on 40 points. Toshiba Brave Lupus are in third place on 34 points with Panasonic Wild Knights rounding out the top four on 30 points. Yamaha Jubilo are in fifth place on 29 points ahead of ahead of NTT Communications Shining Arcs and Toyota Verblitz on 23 points. Ricoh Black Rams and Kintetsu Liners are both locked on 21 points, followed by Canon Eagles and NEC Green Rockets on 16 points. Meanwhile, Kyuden Voltex are twelfth place on 8 points with Fukuoka Sanix Blues on six points and NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes on the bottom of the table on two points.

At the Kumagaya Rugby Park in Kumagaya city, Saitama prefecture on Saturday afternoon, Toshiba Brave Lupus beat Yamaha Jubilo 17-14. The win keeps the Brave Lupus well in the hunt for the play-offs but for the Jubilo who were fourth on the table coming into this round, there is now ground to make up. Playing into the teeth of strong winds in the first half Toshiba defied the odds and managed to take a 3-0 lead into the halftime break, primarily on the back of a glut of possession and territory. Two sinbinnings either side of the break did not help the Yamaha cause as Toshiba got out to a 17-0 lead after five-pointers to halfback Tomoki Yoshida and centre Keisuke Masuda. Then, with less than ten minutes on the clock Yamaha threw caution to the wind and came up with two tries of their own only to fall short of staging a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

In the only other Saturday game, in Kofu city in Yamanashi prefecture, unbeaten Suntory Sungoliath defeated NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes 48-14. In total contrast, this was a battle between Suntory as the team at the top of the table and struggling NTT Docomo at the bottom of the table and despite all odds the Red Hurricanes went to the halftime break with the scores locked at 7-all. Unfortunately for NTT Docomo, Suntory went into hyper drive in the second stanza running in an additional 7 tries to maintain their unbeaten record. The five-pointers were pretty much shared around with five-eighth Peter Hewat and flanker George Smith among the scorers while left wing Daishi Murata picked up the final two tries of the afternoon.

On Sunday, In the first game of a double header at the Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Ground in Osaka, NTT Communications Shining Arcs lost to Kobelco Steelers 48-5. As the inaugural Top League champions back in 2003-4, Kobe have had a solid start to their season with 8 wins and a draw to sit in outright second position on the table on 40 points and they well and truly continued the momentum against the energetic NTT Comm. outfit. Kobe dominated the first half taking a 20-5 lead into halftime with centre Jaque Fourie among the try scorers for the Steelers. The score remained unchanged until the 25^th minute of the second half when Kobe toed throw loose ball with fullback Kenji Shomen running in the third try with the conversion widening the gap to 27-5. The Steelers then emphatically closed out the game with three more tries.

In the second game in Osaka. Kintetsu Liners beat Ricoh Black Rams 19-17. Kintetsu have had an up and down season winning four and losing five to be on 21 points. On the other hand, Ricoh had a tough start to the season with four losses but turned things around remarkably with four wins on the trot including the scalp of Toshiba in their last start before this loss. After trailing 10-7 at the break, Kintetsu ultimately outscored Ricoh 3 tries to 2 with the sinbinning of Ram’s flanker Emosi Kauhenga midway through the second half for a high tackle the turning point in the game. The Liners added two tries as the half progressed to get out to a 19-10 lead but a converted try to fullback Shinichi Yokoyama in the 35^th minute meant the game would go down to the wire. From there though the home side managed to hold on for their fourth win of the season.

At the Ota City Athletic Park in Gunma, Panasonic Wild Knights hosted Toyota Verblitz with the home side winning 40-17. Panasonic have had a roller coaster ride this season with 30 points from six wins and three losses keeping their ambitions of making the play-offs alive. The topsy turvy season for Toyota continues as they have had five wins, a draw and three losses making their task of qualifying for the finals all that much more difficult. Panasonic got out of the blocks fast with three tries in the opening quarter creating an early 22-0 lead. Toyota picked up ten points over the remainder of the half to trail 22-10 by the break. The Wild Knights continued to dominate the latter period eventually outscoring the visitors 5 tries to 2 to run out convincing winners. Japan representative halfback Fumiaki Tanaka was named the man of the match.

At the Global Arena Stadium in Munakata city, Fukuoka prefecture, Fukuoka Sanix Blues were at home to face Canon Eagles but it was not enough to save them from a 23-10 defeat. Sanix had a positive start to the season with a win over Kyuden in the opening round but have since lost eight on the trot over the ensuing rounds to languish in second to last place on 6 points. As the new kids on the block, Canon have had wins over NTT Docomo and Kyuden and this third win gives them 16 points despite suffering six losses along the way. Canon had the better of the first half with centre Ryohei Mitomo scoring all his team’s points through a try, a conversion and a penalty to help the Eagles to a 10-3 lead at the break. Super sub Karn Hesketh scored in the first minute of the second half with the conversion tying things up but after that Canon continued to turn the screw with two more tries and a Callum Bruce drop goal sealing the win.

In the final game in round nine, Kyushu based Kyuden Voltex were on home soil in Kumamoto to play NEC Green Rockets but ended up losing 55-18. After fighting their way back into Top League this season, Kyuden had seven straight losses in their first season back in the top flight after two seasons in the Kyushu league before crucially coming up with a win over NTT Docomo last round but were outplayed by the Rockets in this match up. NEC have had a disappointing season with three wins and six losses but with this victory the team will be looking to finish their campaign strongly. There was not a lot in the first half with two tries to NEC wing Nemani Nadolo enabling the Rockets to secure a 20-13 lead at the break. Kyuden scored first after halftime to get to 20-18 behind but after that it was all NEC as they piled on a further five tries with Nadolo completing the match with four touch downs.

Japan Rugby Top League 2012-13

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	BP1	BP2	Pts
1	Suntory	9	9	0	0	350	179	171	8	0	44
2	Kobe	9	8	1	0	336	151	185	6	0	40
3	Toshiba	9	7	0	2	284	189	95	5	1	34
4	Panasonic	9	6	0	3	299	195	104	5	1	30
5	Yamaha	9	6	0	3	278	185	93	4	1	29
6	Toyota	9	5	1	3	191	209	-18	0	1	23
7	NTT Comm.	9	5	0	4	186	209	-23	1	2	23
8	Kintetsu	9	4	0	5	237	178	59	3	2	21
9	Ricoh	9	4	0	5	222	219	3	3	2	21
10	Canon	9	3	0	6	208	226	-18	3	1	16
11	NEC	9	3	0	6	246	284	-38	3	1	16
12	Kyuden	9	1	0	8	142	360	-218	2	2	8
13	Sanix	9	1	0	8	175	329	-154	1	1	6
14	NTT Docomo	9	0	0	9	130	371	-241	1	1	2

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 of round nine, Yamaha fullback Ayumu Goromaru tops the point scorers list with 108 points.

	Name	Team	T	G	PG	DG	Pts
1	Ayumu Goromaru	Yamaha	1	26	17	0	108
2	Yoshio Kimishima	NTT Comm.	2	15	22	0	106
3	Stephen Brett	Toyota	6	14	14	0	100
4	Atsushi Tanabe	Panasonic	0	24	17	0	99
5	Peter Grant	Kobe	0	23	14	0	88
6	Shotaro Onishi	Kintetsu	0	23	10	1	79
6	Ryohei Mitomo	Canon	2	18	11	0	79
8	Hiroshi Tashiro	Sanix	0	13	16	0	74
9	Yu Tamura	NEC	1	22	6	0	67
9	Yoshimitsu Kawano	Ricoh	0	14	13	0	67
9	Ryan Nicholas	Suntory	2	18	7	0	67
12	Jaque Fourie	Kobe	13	0	0	0	65
12	Akihito Yamada	Panasonic	13	0	0	0	65
12	Nemani Nadolo	NEC	13	0	0	0	65

Leading Try Scorers

At the completion of round nine, three players top the try scorers list with 13 tries.

	Name	Team	Tries
1	Akihito Yamada	Panasonic	13
1	Jaque Fourie	Kobe	13
1	Nemani Nadolo	NEC	13
4	Hirotoki Onozawa	Suntory	9
5	Hiraku Tomoigawa	NTT Comm.	8
6	Steven Bates	Toshiba	7
6	Toetu’u Taufa	Kintetsu	7
8	Tim Bennett	Canon	6
8	Stephen Brett	Toyota	6
8	Takehisa Usuzuki	Toshiba	6

Round 9 Man-of-the-match Awards

Date	Teams	Score	Teams	Ground	MOTM
Sat 01 Dec 2012	Toshiba	17-14	Yamaha	Kumagaya, Saitama	Tomoki Yoshida, Halfback
	Suntory	48-14	NTT Docomo	Kofu, Yamanashi	George Smith, Flanker
Sun 02 Dec 2012	NTT Comm.	5-48	Kobe	Hanazono, Osaka	Yoshikazu Ohashi, Wing
	Kintetsu	19-17	Ricoh	Hanazono, Osaka	Shinsuke Yoshida, Hooker
	Panasonic	40-17	Toyota	Ota, Gunma	Fumiaki Tanaka, Halfback
	Sanix	10-23	Canon	Global, Fukuoka	Ryohei Mitomo, Centre
	Kyuden	18-55	NEC	Kumamoto, Kumamoto	Nemani Nadolo, Wing

University Rugby 2012

The major university rugby leagues kicked off around the country over September and early October with schools in the Kanto Taiko now having played six of their seven round games while the Kanto League schools have played all seven games. In the Kansai League, there is only the one game between Tenri and Doshisha to play.

Kanto Taiko

(Teikyo University, Waseda University, Meiji University, Tsukuba University, Keio Gijuku University, Aoyama Gakuin University, Nippon Sports Science University and Rikkyo University.)

In the final game in the Kanto Taiko competition played at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday, 2 December 2012, Meiji staged a dramatically late come-from-behind victory to defeat Waseda 33-32 in front of 32,132 fans. Consequently, that left Tsukuba, Teikyo and Meiji locked on top of the table with six wins and one loss for each school. All three have a stake to the claim of the title, however, for the purposes of seeding for the University National Championship point differential was used to determine placings with Tsukuba (+306) on top from Teikyo (+285) and Meiji (+211). Elsewhere, Waseda finished in fourth place with four wins and three losses, followed by Keio in fifth place with three wins and four losses. Further down the table, Nippon Sports Science took sixth place after they finished the rounds with two wins and five losses, from Aoyama Gakuin in seventh place with one win and six losses leaving Rikkyo with the wooden spoon with seven straight losses.

Pos.	University	P	W	L
1	Tsukuba	7	6	1
1	Teikyo	7	6	1
1	Meiji	7	6	1
4	Waseda	7	4	3
5	Keio	7	3	4
6	NSSU	7	2	5
7	Aoyama Gakuin	7	1	6
8	Rikkyo	7	0	7

Kanto League

(Ryutsu Keizai University, Tokai University, Kanto Gakuin University, Daitobunka University, Hosei University, Nihon University, Chuo University and Takushoku University.)

In the Kanto League competition, Tokai have finished on top of the table winning seven straight to take the title on 28 points. Ryutsu Keizai came in second with 25 points from six wins and the one loss to Tokai. Three teams finished on 19 points from 4 wins and 3 losses with differential determining the final placings with Takushoku claiming third spot (+17), Hosei fourth (+15) and Nihon fifth (-32). Chuo finished sixth on 13 points from 2 wins and 5 losses, Daitobunka ended their season in seventh place on 10 points from one win and 6 losses leaving the once mighty Kanto Gakuin with the wooden spoon on 7 points from seven straight losses.

Pos.	University	P	W	L	Pts.
1	Tokai	7	7	0	28
2	Ryutsu Keizai	7	6	1	25
3	Takushoku	7	4	3	19
4	Hosei	7	4	3	19
5	Nihon	7	4	3	19
6	Chuo	7	2	5	13
7	Daitobunka	7	1	6	10
8	Kanto Gakuin	7	0	7	7

Kansai League

(Tenri University, Doshisha University, Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kwansei Gakuin University, Kinki University, Kyoto Sangyo University and Setsunan University.)

At the completion of all seven rounds, Tenri collected top spot with seven consecutive wins. Meanwhile, Ritsumeikan came in second with six wins and one loss, Kwansei Gakuin third with five wins and two losses and Kinki fourth with four wins and three losses. Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences and Doshisha both finished with two wins and five losses with the former fifth and the latter sixth on differential. Meanwhile, Kyoto Sangyo finished seventh from two wins for five losses leaving Setsunan last without a win.

Pos.	University	P	W	L
1	Tenri	7	6	0
2	Ritsumeikan	7	6	1
3	Kwansei Gakuin	7	5	2
4	Kinki	7	4	3
5	OUHSS	7	2	5
6	Doshisha	7	2	5
7	Kyoto Sangyo	7	2	5
8	Setsunan	7	0	7

In other university rugby news, Asahi University from the Tokai region have won their way through to the First Stage of the 49^th National University Championship to join Tohoku Gakuin University and Fukuoka Kogyo University. The three schools will play each other once with Fukuoka Kogyo beating Tohoku Gakuin 107-19 in Kumagaya on Sunday 18 November and Asahi beat Tohoku Gakuin 67-10 in Kyoto Saturday 24 November. Fukuoka Kogyo beat Asahi 44-7 in Kumamoto on Sunday 2 December with Fukuoka Kogyo as the top placed team progressing to the Second Stage.

Last up-dated: Monday, 03 December 2012.

Odds & Sods

Odds & Sods brings the reader weekly news shorts, gossip and general happenings from the world of Rugby in Japan.

News in Japan: Catching the headlines in Japan this week are:

IRB ranking on 12 November 2012 - Japan were 15 on 68.83 points, up one spot in the rankings after beating Romania in Bucharest on Saturday.