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All Black Richie Mo'unga can erase Springbok's remaining hopes
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It’s not often that a team who have won 15 out of 16 and are potentially within a win of a top-of-the-table finish can be considered ‘quiet’ achievers.
Yet as far as this season in Japan Rugby League One is concerned, Springbok inside centre Damian de Allende’s Saitama Wild Knights have been exactly that.
With new All Black coach Dave Rennie’s Kobelco Kobe Steelers running roughshod over everybody who gets in their way, the title defence of defending champions Toshiba Brave Lupus disintegrating, Toyota Verblitz finally coming to life after years of slumber, and Tokyo Sungoliath losing an unprecedented five on the trot, the league leaders have almost been a sideshow to the main diet of headlines.
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Even so, the Wild Knights will board the train to downtown Tokyo on Friday night knowing that a win over Urayasu D-Rocks at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium will guarantee a top two finish, and a first-round bye in the play-offs.
Should they gain five competition points against the division’s bottom-placed side, and second-placed Kobe fail to beat Mie Honda Heat on Saturday, Saitama will be the top qualifier for the League One play-offs for the third time in five years.
That doesn’t guarantee the title, but with the extra time to rearm and prepare, it would make them even harder to beat.
De Allende scored twice in last weekend’s 57-19 battering of Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars, in doing so tying his best try-scoring return for a season of seven, but while his side is averaging over five tries an outing in attack, it is their defence that is winning them games.
The unassuming but uncompromising South African is at the heart of the league’s strongest barricade, which is conceding less than 20 points per outing in the historically free-scoring league.
Kobe, the league’s leading point-scorers, will end Honda’s play-offs chances with a win on Saturday, while Richie Mo’unga’s Toshiba Brave Lupus will erase the remaining hopes of Shizuoka BlueRevs, led by Springbok Kwagga Smith, if they can bounce back from last week’s shock defeat by Yokohama Canon Eagles.
Next up for Jesse Kriel’s giant-killing Eagles are the Dynaboars in the second Kanagawa derby.
The Dynaboars won the first 17-10, but have won only three games since, and will be headed for the post-season Replacement Battle if they lose.
While fourth-placed BlackRams Tokyo and Tokyo Sungoliath in fifth could still be edged out of a finals spot, they can both remove any threat remaining while they still control their destiny.
A draw or a win against Kubota Spears would be enough for the BlackRams, although they wouldn’t even need that if Toshiba and Toyota Verblitz, who rank below them, both lose.
The latter will be gunning for Sungoliath, knowing a win would propel them into the top six if Toshiba have stumbled.
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