Division One
A six-team finals series might afford more time to make up ground lost early in the season, but it also guarantees there will be more competition for those places, which could easily be sneaking into the back of the minds of the brains trusts at two of last season’s semi-finalists, Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath and Yokohama Canon Eagles, as well as the always fancied Toyota Verblitz, as 2025 kicks off in Japan Rugby League One.
The new year greets all three with the win column still empty and the need for a boost – psychologically as much as numerically – starting to grow.
The anxiety will only increase the longer the wait for the first win goes on, and it will be another week at least for one of Sungoliath or Verblitz, who clash in the feature game of Saturday’s programme.
While slow – and ultimately ruinous – starts to the season have become a familiarity for Verblitz, Sungoliath are in new territory.
Rookie coach Kosei Ono inherited a side that failed to win any of its last three matches in qualifying last term, but the subsequent defeats against Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo that opened the new campaign has left Sungoliath without a win in five regular season games: a concerning statistic for one of the most famed clubs in Japanese history.
Although Verblitz have greater experience of starting slowly, their ‘wisdom’ is not exactly advantageous.
Two years ago, Steve Hansen’s men won just two of their first eight and were left with too much to do, despite a strong finish with six wins from the last eight to end fifth.
A year later, four wins in the first eight compromised hopes again, with the five wins gathered from their last eight outings only good enough for seventh.
Verblitz are not desperate yet, but the urgency is growing, and Sungoliath is not an opponent they have enjoyed much success against, even if they did win last year’s meeting.
Their 27-20 win on that occasion was just the second time Verblitz had beaten Sungoliath from the last 22 attempts.
Although not yet a club record, the Eagles’ loss to Kobelco Kobe Steelers on Sunday was their sixth in a row; albeit four of which have been by margins of seven points or less, including on opening day against Toshiba Brave Lupus.
This will give the Yokohama camp confidence that they are not too far away.
Eagles coach Keisuke Sawake’s troubles are dwarfed by those facing his Urayasu D-Rocks counterpart Greig Laidlaw, who takes his team north to Fukushima for their Saturday afternoon date on the back of consecutive heavy defeats.
History suggested the start of the season would be difficult for the Division Two champions, but the value of a breakthrough win now could be incalculable to how their maiden topflight journey ends.
Mie Honda Heat know all about the difficulties associated with promotion, and it is a testament as to how far they have come that skipper Pablo Matera’s team head into the weekend as one of three unbeaten sides in the league, already having won one more match than they did in the entirety of last season.
The next step offers the chance to exorcise another demon from last term’s tortuous ride as they face Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay on Sunday; an opponent who embarrassed Mie 75-0, scoring unanswered 11 tries, when the two sides met on the second weekend last season. It was the biggest win of the Spears’ history.
Brave Lupus host Kobelco Kobe Steelers in the second of Sunday afternoon’s matches, with the champions having won 19 of their last 21 matches, but not against Kobe, with whom they played out a thrilling 40-40 draw last term.
It was the highest scoring draw ever recorded in Japan at professional level.
Saturday’s other matches see the competition’s two other unbeaten sides in action, with the Wild Knights visiting the Black Rams while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Dynaboars host Shizuoka Blue Revs.
Divisions Two & Three
A slimmed-down two-game programme to complete the round started last weekend in the lower divisions, sees all four sides involved chasing their first wins of the season.
Quade Cooper’s Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, with All Black Akira Ioane now on board, were surprise losers on opening day, when upset by a Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi outfit who were subsequently beaten themselves on Saturday, going down at the hands of Red Hurricanes Osaka.
Kintetsu was separated by a division from Sunday’s opponents last term, with Hino Red Dolphins coming up as Division Three champions, only to lose on the first weekend to the side they had beaten to that title, Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks.
After having gone unbeaten up until the final game of last term, losing is not a habit the Red Dolphins are used to.
They will be desperate not to start making it a regular acquaintance now, while the Liners will be keen to leave the association behind, with the Osaka-based outfit having won just four of 37 games since they won Division Two in the maiden season of League One.
LeRIRO Fukuoka have yet to win a League One match, but the formline through the 25-17 loss to Yakalt Levins on their debut doesn’t read so badly now, after the Toda-based outfit took down the division old hands Kurita Water Gush Akishima on Saturday.
The same cannot be said for Sunday’s opponents, after Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions were flogged 61-26 by city rivals SkyActivs, in the first Hiroshima derby of the campaign.
Although the Red Regulions have shown resilience coming off the back of heavy defeats before, a record that shows just six wins from 37 matches in League One will offer Fukuoka plenty of encouragement as they prepare to welcome their rivals from western Honshu for the first time.
Fixtures
Division One
Saturday January 4
Urayasu D-Rocks v Yokohama Canon Eagles; at Fukushima, 12pm
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars v Shizuoka Blue Revs; at Tokyo, 12pm
Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo v Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights; at Tokyo, 1pm
Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath v Toyota Verblitz; at Tokyo, 2.30pm
Sunday January 5
Mie Honda Heat v Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay; at Suzuka, 12pm
Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo v Kobelco Kobe Steelers at Tokyo, 1pm
Division Two
Sunday January 5
Hino Red Dolphins v Hanazono Kintetsu Liners; at Tokyo, 12pm
Division Three
Sunday January 5
LeRIRO Fukuoka v Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions; at Fukuoka, 1pm
