RUGBY IN JAPAN NEWSLETTER Vol.11, No.1

The Rugby in Japan newsletter from Ian McDonnell is now into its 11th year.

RiJ is still catching up. Enjoy the read.

Contents

• Japan Rugby Top League 2013-14: Stage Two, Round 5

Japan Rugby Top League 2013-14

Stage Two, Round Five

Group A

Date	Team	Score	Team	K/O	Venue
Sat, 04 Jan 2014	Canon	3-53	Panasonic (7Ts)	12:00	Chichibu, Tokyo
	NEC (2Ts)	17-33	Kobe (5Ts)	14:15	Chichibu, Tokyo
Sun, 05 Jan 2014	Toyota (6Ts)	41-16	Yamaha (1T)	14:15	Mizuho, Aichi
	Toshiba (2Ts)	29-30	Suntory (3Ts)	13:00	Ajinomoto, Tokyo

 

Group B

Date	Team	Score	Team	K/O	Venue
Sat, 04 Jan 2014	NTT Docomo (2Ts)	12-28	Kubota (4Ts)	13:00	Nagai, Osaka
Sun, 05 Jan 2014	Toyota Industries (5Ts)	34-21	NTT Comm. (3Ts)	12:00	Mizuho, Aichi
	Coca-Cola (2Ts)	20-27	Kintetsu (3Ts)	12:00	Level 5, Fukuoka
	Kyuden (5Ts)	31-29	Ricoh (5Ts)	14:15	Level 5, Fukuoka

Stage Two Round Five Wrap-up

Group A

In the first game of a double header at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo on Saturday, Canon Eagles went down heavily to Panasonic Wild Knights losing 53-3. The Wild Knights have now won all five games they have played in Stage Two with this big win confirming them as firm title contenders. Panasonic only led 13-3 at the break but a big second half saw them pull away from the Eagles on the scoreboard as the half progressed. The initial damage was done up front with locks Daniel Heenan and Yu Young-Nam scoring the first three tries of the latter half before Berrick Barnes and JP Pietersen got into the try-scoring action. In an indication of how effective the Panasonic forwards were, loosehead prop Keita Inagaki was named man of the match.

In the second game in Tokyo, NEC Green Rockets lost to Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers 33-17. Shaun Webb got NEC on the scoreboard first with an early penalty but the Steelers had the better of the first half overall taking a 12-10 lead into halftime. After the break, tries to flanker and captain Daiki Hashimoto and centre Jaque Fourie pushed out the lead to 26-10 before giant wing Nemani Nadolo pegged one back for the Rockets. Kobe finished the stronger though, with wing Yuta Imamura closing out the game with the fifth Kobe try in the seventy-seventh minute of play.

On Sunday, Toyota Verblitz beat Yamaha Jubilo 41-16 at the Mizuho Rugby park in Nagoya. Despite the fact the Verblitz were handed three yellow cards throughout the match, the home side simply had too much firepower across the board as they overwhelmed Jubilo six tries to one. There was not much in it at the end of the first half with Toyota holding a slender 12-9 lead but the second half was a different story. The Verblitz piled on another four tries to be out to a 34-9 lead by the hour mark and after that the hosts closed down the game. Yuki Yatomi scored the only try for Yamaha in the twenty-ninth minute of the latter half but Toyota had the last say with halfback Ippei Asada scoring the final try in the closing minutes.

In the final Group A game in round five, Toshiba Brave Lupus lost 30-29 to Suntory Sungoliath in the Fuchu derby at the Ajinomoto Stadium. In a tight one between two of the heavy weights in the league, centre Ryan Nicholas edge the Sungoliath one point in front in the thirty-second minute of the second half setting up a grandstand finish. Toshiba halfback Takahiro Ogawa had the opportunity to steal the game at the death but his attempt at penalty did not find its mark leaving Suntory to take the spoils. Suntory lock and captain led from the front and was named the man of the match.

Group B

On Saturday, NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes lost to Kubota Spears 28-12 at the Nagai Stadium in Osaka. Kubota had the run of the first half with flanker Phillip Finau, centre Katoni Otukolo and No8 Erone Takitaki touching down to create a 21-0 lead at the end of the first forty minutes of play. The Red Hurricanes struck back early in the latter half with tighthead prop Hiroshi Kitajima scoring the first of his two tries for the afternoon but one more Kubota try was enough to clinch the win and also the bonus point. Kubota fullback Sam Norton-Knight was the man of the match.

On Sunday, Toyota Industries Shuttles beat NTT Communications Shining Arcs 34-21 at the Mizuho Rugby park in Nagoya. Toyota Industries lost to Kubota in round one but have since had four wins in a row to stay at the top of Group B with Kubota. Lock Isaac Ross got the scoring going with a try for NTT Comm. in the third minute of play but after that the first half belonged to the Shuttles with two tries seeing the Toyota side out to a 15-7 lead at the break. The Shining Arcs fought back with two second half tries to hit the front 21-15 before running out of steam. No8 Ryan Kankowski started the comeback for the Shuttles with a try in the fifteenth minute and this led to two more team tries as the locals pulled away on the scoreboard over the final quarter.

In the first game of a double header at the Level Five Stadium in Fukuoka on Sunday, Coca-Cola West Red Sparks lost 27-20 to Kintetsu Liners. The Red Sparks led 20-7 early in the second stanza but the Liners found another gear or two and came home over the top with two further tries seeing them home. Coca-Cola wing Yamato Eto was sinbinned in the twenty-sixth minute of the second half and this gave Kintetsu the opportunity to use the ball with a man advantage out wide. Masaaki Murashita scored in the twenty-seventh minute and then Chinese wing Yang Li scored in the thirty-sixth minute to put Kintetsu back in front and from there they did enough to shut out the game and take the win.

In the second game in Fukuoka, Kyuden Voltex beat Ricoh Black Rams 31-29. Kyuden or NTT Docomo are shaping as the most likely contenders for relegation for the team that finishes in last place in Group B and to avoid this possibility the Voltex came up with this vital home win over Ricoh. Both sides scored five tries apiece and had Riki Flutey landed a late conversion it would have been good enough for a draw but the kick sailed wide leaving Kyuden to collect only their second win of the season. The win also gives Kyuden eleven competition points and a buffer over NTT Docomo at the bottom of Group B on four points.

Group A

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	BP1	BP2	Pts
1	Panasonic (+4)	5	5	0	0	165	59	106	3	0	27
2	Suntory (+4)	5	4	0	1	181	125	56	3	0	23
3	Yamaha (+3)	5	3	0	2	134	126	8	2	1	18
4	Kobe (+2)	5	3	0	2	154	126	28	3	0	17
5	Toshiba (+2)	5	3	0	2	116	98	18	0	2	16
6	Canon (+1)	5	1	0	4	87	169	-82	0	2	7
7	NEC (+3)	5	0	0	5	104	169	-65	1	2	6
8	Toyota (+1)	5	1	0	4	89	158	-69	1	0	6

Group B

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	BP1	BP2	Pts
1	Kubota (+4)	5	4	0	1	133	58	75	2	1	23
2	Toyota Industries (+3)	5	4	0	1	164	116	48	4	0	23
3	Kintetsu (+3)	5	4	0	1	132	124	8	1	1	21
4	Ricoh (+2)	5	2	0	3	148	123	25	3	2	15
5	NTT Comm. (+4)	5	2	0	3	117	151	-34	2	1	15
6	Coca-Cola (+1)	5	2	0	3	99	122	-23	2	2	13
7	Kyuden (+1)	5	2	0	3	110	165	-55	2	0	11
8	NTT Docomo (+2)	5	0	0	5	83	127	-44	0	2	4

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 One and then Stage Two, Round Five, Suntory centre Ryan Nicholas tops the point scorers list with 155 points.

	Name	Team	T	G	PG	DG	Pts
1	Ryan Nicholas	Suntory	2	38	23	0	155
2	Ayumu Goromaru	Yamaha	2	31	27	0	153
3	Shaun Webb	NEC	1	17	28	0	123
4	Harumichi Tatekawa	Kubota	0	21	22	0	108
5	Yasumasa Shigemitsu	Kintetsu	2	27	14	0	109
6	Ryohei Mitomo	Canon	1	29	12	0	99
7	Yoshio Kimishima	NTT Comm.	2	24	10	0	88
8	Shotaro Onishi	Toyota Ind.	1	28	6	0	79
9	Berrick Barnes	Panasonic	3	13	11	0	74
10	Takahiro Ogawa	Toshiba	2	10	12	0	66

Leading Try Scorers

At the completion Stage One and then Stage Two, Round Five, Kobe centre Jaque Fourie tops the try scorers list with 13 tries.

	Name	Team	Tries
1	Jaque Fourie	Kobe	13
2	Akihito Yamada	Panasonic	10
3	Shindo Kamaike	NEC	9
4	Tokiro Harada	Canon	8
4	Rikiya Asami	Toyota Ind.	8
4	Kenta Tsukamoto	Suntory	8
4	Masakatsu Hikosaka	Toyota	8
4	Ryan Kankowski	Toyota Ind.	8
9	JP Pietersen	Panasonic	7
10	Koliniasi Ryu Holani	Panasonic	6
10	Radike Samo	Kintetsu	6
10	Shuetsu Narita	Suntory	6
10	Tim Bennetts	Canon	6

Stage 2, Round 5 Man-of-the-match Awards

Date	Group	Teams	Score	Teams	MOTM
Sat 04 Jan 2014	A	Canon	3-53	Panasonic	Keita Inagaki,
					Panasonic No.1
	A	NEC	17-33	Kobe	Hiroshi Yamashita,
					Kobe No.3
	B	NTT Docomo	12-28	Kubota	Sam Norton-Knight,
					Kubota No.15
Sun 05 Jan 2014	B	Toyota Industries	34-21	NTT Comm.	Ryan Kankowski,
					Toyota Ind. No.8
	A	Toyota	41-16	Yamaha	Koji Wada,
					Toyota No.11
	B	Coca-Cola	20-27	Kintetsu	Yang Li,
					Kintetsu No.11
	B	Kyuden	31-29	Ricoh	Makoto Kato,
					Kyuden No.14
	A	Toshiba	29-30	Suntory	Shinya Makabe,
					Suntory