All Black Richie Mo’unga aiming for perfect 10 in Japanese farewell

Can serial title-winner Richie Mo’unga sign off with a hat-trick when the fifth edition of Japan Rugby League One kicks off in Tokyo next week?

The 31-year-old All Black and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo star’s attempt to add a third Japanese title in as many attempts to his seven Super Rugby championships with the Crusaders promises to be one of the most discussed story lines of the season, which begins on December 13.

It will not be easy.

While Brave Lupus became the first side to defend the title when they edged Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay 18-13 in last year’s decider, the five-point gap was the largest in the competition’s four championship games to date, illustrating how slim the margins are at the top end of arguably the game’s most competitive league.

Mo’unga’s quest might be the headline act, but there will be no shortage of subplots in a competition that remains such a magnet for international stars that when the Springboks met Japan at Wembley in October, 33 of the 46 players who featured had appeared in League One earlier in the year with another, Springbok fly-half Manie Libbok, Japan-bound this time.

Newly crowned international men’s Player of the Year and Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx threatened to steal the limelight from Mo’unga last term, with his performance not missed by the World Rugby judges as he drove the Spears to the final, before a stellar test season paved the way to his coronation.

Marx is one of three World Players of the Year who will feature, with his Test teammate and two-time winner Pieter Steph du Toit back at Toyota Verblitz after he missed the previous competition due to injury, while All Black Ardie Savea’s return to Kobelco Kobe Steelers provided the biggest off-season transfer news.

Although some clubs still have vacancies on their roster for Test capped foreigners, over 50 are already registered for a competition across three divisions that runs until the first weekend in June. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are all represented among the foreign test brigade.

Savea lines up alongside fellow Test centurion Brodie Retallick as well as All Black centre Anton Lienert-Brown for a Kobe side that could be the biggest threat to Brave Lupus supremacy after an improver’s third last term.

While Kobe boss Dave Rennie is seeking to emulate his fellow former Wallaby coaches Eddie Jones and Robbie Deans in landing the title, the latter has stepped back from his fulltime position at the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights passing the reins to his long-time assistant Atsushi Kanazawa.

The Wild Knights won the inaugural title, but they have been denied in two finals since and exited in the semi-finals last term.
Such has been Saitama’s dominance that their failure to win on six occasions last season – four defeats and two draws – represented more setbacks than the first three editions of the league combined.

After narrowly missing out last term, the Spears can again be expected to be right in the fight, while there will be much interest in how the Kwagga-Smith led Shizuoka Blue Revs back up, after a stunning run to the finals last time that included a 56-26 thumping of the eventual champions.

TJ Perenara’s Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo will be eying a top six finish, while the well-travelled Leon MacDonald has been tasked with rejuvenating Yokohama Canon Eagles, who crashed to eighth after back-to-back semi-finals.

Perhaps surprisingly given they limped into the playoffs in sixth, Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath had the most players on the Brave Blossoms autumn tour so improvement will be expected, as it always is from the misfiring Toyota Verblitz. They have replaced league star Joseph Manu with All Black winger Mark Telea.

After struggling in their first season in Division One, Urayasu D-Rocks have made an eye-catching coaching change, bringing in the title-winning Munster and Leicester coach Graham Rowntree. The former England assistant coach has a fascinating a challenge ahead in what is the most adventurous move of the veteran front-rower’s distinguished career.