Ex-Munster coach enjoys wild night in Japan, former Italy boss bested

All Black coach Dave Rennie’s Kobelco Kobe Steelers are back on top of the Japan Rugby League One standings after ending the playoffs’ hopes of Kieran Crowley’s Mie Honda Heat with a 24-19 win in Osaka yesterday.

The hard-fought victory, which included Brodie Retallick’s 17th try of the season, took Kobe back to the summit after they had surrendered that position following a shock 38-29 defeat by then bottom-ranked Yokohama Canon Eagles in March.

Saturday also saw the playoffs picture completed with Tokyo Sungoliath and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo stamping their passports following impressive victories over Toyota Verblitz and Shizuoka BlueRevs respectively.

Coming off an unprecedented five consecutive defeats, Sungoliath appeared headed for more pain when they trailed after 30 minutes at Aichi, but ripped up the script, blowing their hosts away with five unanswered tries in less than 20 minutes either side of halftime.

Three tries in the last six minutes, two of which were scored by All Black winger Mark Telea, saved face for Verblitz, but not their season, with the 54-38 defeat eliminating Steve Hansen’s men from the playoffs race.

Shizuoka are finished too, but they fully stretched the defending champions, who had returning Brave Blossoms winger Jone Naikabula to thank for a 22-22 halftime scoreline after the Fijian, who was starting for the first time this season, scored twice.

While Brave Lupus edged clear in the second half to win 34-29, an injury time try by BlueRevs winger Malo Tuitama caused a few heart palpitations before the fulltime whistle was blown.

Kubota Spears, who are level on points with the second-placed Saitama Wild Knights, kept themselves in the hunt for a top two finish by crushing BlackRams Tokyo 52-8, while 11th placed Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars were confirmed for the relegation series after they were beaten 31-22 by the Eagles.

The Dynaboars will be joined by Urayasu D-Rocks whose coach, former Munster boss Graham Rowntree, enjoyed the finest night of his maiden season in Japan when his charges broke a 12-game losing streak by upsetting the Wild Knights 27-24.

Friday night’s thrilling win was the second instance this season where the side at the bottom of the standings has beaten the team ranked top.

Looking anything but an outfit that will have to defend its top-tier status, D-Rocks responded with 22 points after the former league-leaders had jumped to an early 12-0 advantage.

Urayasu rallied again once the visitors had reclaimed the lead, scoring the match-winner with the clock in the red when centre Siosifa Lisala plunged through a wall of Saitama bodies to clinch the game.

Former Melbourne Rebel Tamati Ioane was the individual star, the 120-kilogram backrower using Saitama defenders as pin balls at one point on the way to the second try of his man-of-the-match performance.