The fourth edition of Japan Rugby League One kicks off next week, with the tournament opening with the clash between Mie Honda Heat and Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo on December 21.
The match is the first of 209 in Division One’s regular season, with the competition expanded by three additional entries in Division Three: Yakult Levins Toda, LeRIRO Fukuoka and SECOM Sayama Rugguts.
An extra week has also been added to the finals series in Division One, taking the length of the season to 21 weeks (including division-wide bye rounds), with the final to be played in Tokyo on Sunday June 1, 2025.
The promotion/relegation ‘Replacement Battle’ series between Divisions One and Two has been downsized and will involve just four teams playing home and away, as opposed to the previous six-team format.
Division One
Despite fielding a largely unchanged playing roster following last season’s thrilling victory in the final at the National Stadium, history suggests Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo’s task of defending the title will be even harder than it was to win the competition in the first place.
Brave Lupus became the third champions of the first three seasons of League One after edging the inaugural winners, Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, 24-20 in a dramatic finish to the championship game which was played in front of 56,486 fans at the National Stadium.
TOKYO, JAPAN – MAY 26: Captain Michael Leitch of Toshiba Brave Lupus lifts the trophy in front of fans following the NTT Japan Rugby League One Play-Off Final between Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo at National Stadium on May 26, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images)
With All Black flyhalf Richie Mo’unga and ex-test teammate and backrower Shannon Frizell leading the charge, alongside an impressive cast of local players which includes Brave Blossoms winger Jone Naikabula, second rower Warner Dearns, hooker Mamoru Harada and veteran loose forward Michael Leitch, Brave Lupus will be hard to beat.
Saitama Wild Knights
So too will the side they beat last time, with the Wild Knights having featured in all three of the league’s finals, beating Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath first up, before narrow losses to Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay and Brave Lupus.
Kings of the regular season, the Saitama-based outfit have won all but six of their 54 matches in the qualifying phase – in two of those they didn’t even play as they were Covid-enforced forfeits – but they have lost veteran hooker Shota Horie (retirement) and long-time Brave Blossoms flyhalf Rikiya Matsuda from last year’s line-up. Matsuda has replaced All Black Beauden Barrett at Toyota Verblitz.
The recruitment of the 30-year-old, who scored 207 points last term, is one of several key changes at Toyota, as Director of Rugby Steve Hansen continues to look for a winning formula in Aichi, having failed to make the playoffs in the league’s first three editions.
Toyota Verblitz
Last season, Verblitz finished a disappointing seventh. A key arrival is that of Hansen’s long-time coaching partner and All Black successor Ian Foster, who as head coach, has taken up his first role since guiding New Zealand to the final at last year’s Rugby World Cup.
Veteran second row Richie Gray is another new addition; one of two Scotland internationals to have made their way to Japan, with hooker George Turner joining his former Glasgow boss Dave Rennie at Kobe.
Like Hansen, Rennie has made some key additions in a bid to build on last season’s improved showing, with the Scot joined by Yokohama’s try-scoring revelation from recent seasons, winger Inoke Burua, along with ex-Ulster coach Dan McFarland.
Urayasu D-Rocks
The Scottish influence has taken on a new dimension at Urayasu D-Rocks as well, with ex-test captain Greig Laidlaw taking charge of the club he ended his playing career with.
Promoted after back-to-back Division Two championships, D-Rocks arrive armed with big-name Wallabies Israel Folau and Samu Kerevi, along with backrower Jasper Wiese; one of eight members of South Africa’s Rugby Championship winning squad who will play this season’s league. Winger Kurt Lee Arendse is another of these.
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 16: Jasper Wiese of South Africa takes on Marcus Smith (L) and Ollie Lawrence during the Autumn Nations Series 2024 match between England and South Africa at Allianz Twickenham Stadium on November 16, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Mitsubishi Dynaboars
He teams with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars, who finished ninth last term, but were comfortably clear of the promotion/relegation series after winning six matches. In the 2023-24 season, the Kanagawa-based club had won just four times.
Arendse’s fellow hot stepping Springbok, Cheslin Kolbe, will be looking to bring his test form – which dazzled the crowd at Twickenham last month – to Japan, after having been restricted to 11 matches on debut for Sungoliath last season.
Sungoliath
With each of Kolbe, All Black Sam Cane and Wallaby Sean McMahon dogged by injury, there was plenty of merit in last term’s semi-final appearance by Sungoliath, but Kosei Ono – part of the Brave Blossoms team which beat South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup – will aspire for more as he suits up for his maiden season as a head coach. While pre-season form is not always a reliable guide, Ono has started well, with Sungoliath unbeaten.
Yokohama Canon Eagles
Fellow semi-finalists Yokohama Canon Eagles have experienced Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk back in harness, after he missed much of this year’s league with injury, while centre Jesse Kriel has also reported ready to go, following an outstanding international campaign where he helped the Springboks reinforce their number one world ranking.
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN – DECEMBER 16: Faf De Klerk of Yokohama Canon Eagles passes the ball during the NTT Japan Rugby League One match between Yokohama Canon Eagles and Toyota Verblitz on December 16, 2023 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. (Photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images)
Shizuoka Blue Revs
Kwagga Smith, who was also scrubbed for much of last season due to injury, is back and will again skipper Shizuoka Blue Revs, with ex-All Black Charles Piutau alongside as the pair seek to lift the competition’s serial heartbreakers, who have lost 14 matches by 10 points or less since League One began.
Spears
Despite the departure of Wales fullback Liam Williams, the return of hooker Malcolm Marx, after he missed the Spears’ unsuccessful title defence due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, will have given everybody associated with the Funabashi Bay club an extra spring in their step: understandable given the Springboks’ record of 25 tries from 29 appearances in the orange jersey.
Black Rams Tokyo
Ex-Harlequins coach Tabai Matson and All Black scrumhalf TJ Perenara are the notable newcomers at Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo, the pair tasked with pushing the club up the table after they flirted with relegation last term.
Honda Heat
Mie Honda Heat had a similar experience, and ex-Italy coach Kieran Crowley will be hoping to have Los Pumas centurion Pablo Matera available for a full campaign, after the 31-year missed most of last term, arriving just in time to score four tries against Shuttles Aichi in the first leg to help his side survive in The Replacement Battle.
Division Two
The return of Hanazono Liners, after they lost a Replacement Battle against Urayasu D-Rocks, completes the puzzle in Division Two, with the demoted side having added All Black back-rower Akira Ioane and Exeter Chiefs midfielder Tom Hendrickson to a roster that still includes the veteran Wallaby pair, flyhalf Quade Cooper and scrumhalf Will Genia.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JULY 25: Quade Cooper of the Wallabies in action during an Australia Wallabies training session at Brighton Grammar School on July 25, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
The 34-year-old Cooper, who was the Player of the Year during Hanazono’s promotion-winning campaign three seasons ago, will again be central to his side’s hopes of ‘escaping’ an expanded eight-team second tier which has been bolstered by the return of Wallaby Rory Arnold’s Hino Red Dolphins along with All Black and Samoa flyhalf Lima Sopoaga’s Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks.
It won’t be easy for the promoted sides, with NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu and Toyota Shuttles Aichi still smarting following last season’s end-of-season failure, the former especially, after a spectacular late season collapse.
Wayne Pivac’s men dropped their last five, which included an inglorious end following a 55-0 hammering by the Black Rams in the second leg of The Replacement Battle.
The former Wales coach has added Rhys Patchell to the roster, renewing his association with the Scarlets and test flyhalf, while much will also be expected of ex-Brave Blossoms fullback Lemeki Lomano Lava, who has returned to the club where he made his name, after a brief stint with the Heat.
Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex, Japan Steel Kamaishi Seawaves and NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes Osaka make up the grade, with the latter having reinforced their roster with the signings of Bath second rower Elliott Stooke and ex Munster backrower Jack O’Sullivan.
Division Three
The arrival of Le RIRO Fukuoka, Yakult Levins Toda and SECOM Sayama Rugguts brings intrigue to Division Three, with the newcomers making up half of the remodelled section, joining Mazda SkyActivs Hiroshima, their cross-town rivals Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions, as well as Kurita Water Gush Akishima.
Veteran Wales second rower Cory Hill and ex-Maori All Blacks and Green Rockets backrow Whetukamokamo Douglas will both strip for the Rugguts, who also have the well-travelled Super Rugby performers TJ Faine and Chase Tiatia on their books. This will make them the team to beat.
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