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Ardie Savea's Japan sabbatical ends on a sour note
World Rugby player of the year Ardie Savea has missed out on the chance of finishing his one-year sabbatical with an experience of the Japan Rugby League One play-offs after Kobelco Kobe Steelers were knocked out of the semi-final race at Hokkaido.
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The Dave Rennie-coached Steelers were felled 39-29 by outgoing champions Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay, who themselves had been eliminated earlier in the weekend after Yokohama Canon Eagles beat Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars 43-19.
Yokohama’s win had left five teams standing, after erasing the mathematical hopes of Toyota Verblitz and Shizuoka Blue Revs, as well as Kubota.
Kobe then joined that trio on the outer, despite 19 points from ex-Chiefs fly-half Bryn Gatland, confirming the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath and Eagles as the semi-final line up.
The Wild Knights claimed the top spot in the regular season for the fourth time since the game resumed following covid after crushing Toyota Verblitz 40-7.
Their assault was led by the Test pair of Wallaby Marika Koroibete and Springbok Lood de Jager who each scored two tries.
It was Koroibete’s third try-scoring double in as many weeks after he had scored just twice in 11 appearances before the run, while de Jager scored his fifth and sixth tries from nine games following a career reboot in the aftermath of well-publicised health problems.
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The win extended a record between the rival coaches which has seen ex-All Black boss Steve Hansen unable to beat his former Wallaby counterpart Robbie Deans in seven attempts since he took over at Verblitz following the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Deans’ men have hit 40 points or more in five of those matches. Unbeaten in 14, the Wild Knights will face the fourth-placed finisher in the semi-finals.
Currently fourth, the Eagles welcomed back Springbok centre Jesse Kriel, who had been out since mid-January after breaking his thumb, and the South African capped off an excellent weekend for the club with a try in the win over the Dynaboars.
Sungoliath, who needed a late penalty goal by fly-half Mikiya Takamoto to secure a 31-31 draw with Shizuoka Blue Revs on Friday night, are only two log points ahead of the Eagles and face a massive derby on Saturday against their Fuchu neighbours and fierce rivals, Brave Lupus.
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With one eye to that game, Toshiba coach Todd Blackadder made eight changes to the combination that drew with Kobe last week, including fielding a third fly-half in as many weeks, with Hayata Nakao standing in for All Black Richie Mo’unga, who was absent on bereavement leave.
While they narrowly squeezed past second-from-bottom Mie Honda Heat 8-7, Honda coach Kieran Crowley will have taken encouragement ahead of next month’s promotion/relegation series from the return of the former Argentine captain Pablo Matera.
"When you get a real big scare, things get put into perspective…"
– Coming soon to RugbyPass: South Africa lock Lood de Jager, with Liam Heagney ??, on life after last year's heart condition ruled him out of #RWC2023. #Springboks @LeagueOne_EN #WildKnights #rugby pic.twitter.com/MB5v5qv8I8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 11, 2024
The 30-year-old, who played the first half, hadn’t featured this season after arriving back from the Rugby World Cup with a leg injury.
Hanazono Kintetsu Liners will also play the relegation series, and they may have taken 10th-placed Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo with them after their 34-23 win.
Kintetsu’s first win of the season – at the 14th attempt – has left the Black Rams 10 points from safety with two games to play.
Comments on RugbyPass
Less modern South African males predictably triggered.
10 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
79 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
79 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
10 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
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