Richie Mo’unga back with a bang ahead of Japan Rugby League One semi-finals

Brave Lupus’ Richie Mo’unga applauds fans after the 2023-24 Japan Rugby League One match between Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo, Japan on April 7, 2024. Credit: AFLO/Alamy Live

Toshiba Brave Lupus welcomed back All Blacks fly-half Richie Mo’unga as they trounced Shizuoka Blue Revs 59-20 in their Japan Rugby League One game on Sunday.

The New Zealand star announced his presence by scoring 19 points, including a try, after missing Toshiba’s last three matches due to the death of his father.

Fellow All Black Shannon Frizell, and the Brave Blossoms trio of wing Jone Naikabula (two), back-rower Michael Leitch and second-rower Warner Dearns, were all scorers among the nine tries posted by Brave Lupus against a flat Blue Revs outfit whose season has collapsed in the last two weeks, conceding 122 points in two defeats.

Semi-final to come

Mo’unga‘s Brave Lupus had already booked a home semi-final, and that will be against Suntory Sungoliath, who will enter the knockout phase, and the third Fuchu derby of the season, on the back of three winless weeks as they capitulated to last year’s champions Kubota Spears 45-26.

Prior to centre Sione Teaupa’s 67th minute try, the Spears had never led in the game, falling behind from the early stages after the Ozaki brothers Taiga, and Seiya combined to score three first-half tries, which gave Suntory a 19-14 half-time advantage.

That became 26-14 when Taiga completed his hat-trick three minutes after the break, but the semi-final-bound Sungoliath didn’t score again and shipped five more tries instead, to leave plenty of work to do ahead of the semi-finals.

The other semi-final will be between Robbie Deans’ Saitama Wild Knights and the Yokohama Canon Eagles, and the weekend’s dress rehearsal did not go well for the Eagles, who were given a 43-14 drubbing.

After a competitive first half, Brave Blossoms centre Dylan Riley broke the game open for the league-leaders, moving his personal try tally for the season to 14 – joint second on the rankings – after a double strike in the final 10 minutes of the half, which allowed the Wild Knights to pull away, extending a 17-14 lead to a 31-14 half-time advantage.

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The second of Riley’s tries were scored while the Eagles’ Wallaby Matt Philip was off the field, with the second-rower having been suckered into a professional foul, making an early tackle from an offside position after the Wild Knights re-started quickly from a free kick.

Already ahead by 17, the visitors looked set to run up a big score after wing Koki Takeyama’s brilliant 47th minute try extended the advantage beyond three converted scores.

That they didn’t was down to desperate Yokohama defence, as well as a plethora of turnovers which will have given Saitama coach Deans plenty of training fodder to use with his players before the re-match on May 18.

The ever-improving Mie Honda Heat go into the relegation play-offs in a positive mindset despite a 33-31 defeat to the Kobelco Kobe Steelers.

The Heat, the 11th ranked side and who had been belted 80-15 when the teams met on the opening day of the season, rallied from 28-17 down with 30 minutes remaining to grab the lead heading into the final 10.

Brace from Aaron Smith

They couldn’t hold on though, as Kobe’s replacement hooker Takuya Kitade scored two minutes from time to seal fifth place on the table for his side. Kobe fly-half Bryn Gatland’s eight points on his final afternoon of duty took the former Chiefs player’s season tally to 217 from 16 appearances, 25 ahead of his nearest rival, Saitama’s Brave Blossoms fly-half, Rikiya Matsuda.

Elsewhere, English fly-half James Grayson starred as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars bagged their sixth victory of the campaign, downing bottom side Hanazono Kintetsu Liners 46-36.

Finally, Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz laboured to a 45-18 win over Ricoh Black Rams, a poor display given a considerable cosmetic boost by five tries in the final 22 minutes, including a brace from Aaron Smith in the final two minutes.