Battle of two ex-Bath bosses heaps more misery on All Blacks star

Tabai Matson won the battle of the ex-Bath and Crusaders coaching colleagues as BlackRams Tokyo overpowered Todd Blackadder’s Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo 33-14 in Japan Rugby League One yesterday to end a miserable February for Richie Mo’unga and the defending champions, who lost all four matches they played.

After a slow start, Brave Lupus had closed to within two points midway through the second half before a try by All Black TJ Perenara blew the game open, with BlackRams scoring the final 17 points to win easily.

Kobelco Kobe Steelers continued their rampaging form, taking their tally of tries from the last 480 minutes of playing time to an astonishing 49, after crushing Urayasu D-Rocks 78-19.

While Israel Folau was a try-scorer for D-Rocks for the third week on end, his effort was dwarfed by the hattrick scored by Australian-born Brave Blossoms backrower Tiennan Costley, alongside the former Fijian Under-20 winger Inoke Burua, who also scored three times.

Just for good measure, Kobe skipper Brodie Retallick added two more to his collection, which now stands at a league-leading 11.

Saitama Wild Knights bounced back from last week’s defeat by Kobe, overpowering Mie Honda Heat 66-19

The third-placed Wild Knights scored nine tries – two each by backrowers Lachlan Boshier and Ben Gunter – in a confidence building hit-out before they face leaders Kubota Spears in two weeks.

The Spears remain top of the standings, two points clear of Kobe, after a hard fought 28-10 win over a game Yokohama Canon Eagles.

Leon MacDonald’s charges looked like anything but the bottom of the league as they fought back from a 21-0 halftime deficit to score the opening two tries of the second spell – one by their skipper Jesse Kriel – before the game was finally put to bed by the Springbok centre’s countryman, Spears midfielder Rikus Pretorius, with a try two minutes from fulltime.

Tokyo Sungoliath continued their impressive recent form, while maintaining their stranglehold over Shizuoka BlueRevs with a thumping win in today’s match at Yamaha Stadium.

Shizuoka has never beaten Sungoliath and it only took 20 minutes to ensure that wasn’t going to change, with the visitors scoring four tries to romp to a 26-0 lead.

The BlueRevs never recovered and were eventually overrun 57-24 placing their hopes of returning to the playoffs for a second straight season in peril.

Sungoliath’s third win on end, the nine-try-to-four success was a great preparation for the annual Fuchu derby against Brave Lupus to determine bragging rights between the western Tokyo rivals.

Aaron Smith won the battle of the All Black scrumhalves as Toyota Verblitz made it two wins in a row, beating Brad Weber’s Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars in a thriller, 31-29.

The lead changed hands nine times in a game that produced nine tries, three by Verblitz winger Taichi Takahashi, before his Brave Blossoms teammate Siosaia Fifita scored the match-winner in the 78th minute.