Israel Folau scores a double in his return to professional rugby
Israel Folau has made a successful return to rugby union, scoring two tries in the Shining Arcs Tokyo-Bay Urayasu’s 24-23 win over the Kobelco Kobe Steelers on Saturday.
Playing his first professional rugby union match in over 1,000 days Folau lined up alongside players including Maori All Black Otere Black, and former Wallaby Liam Gill. It was the first match of the season in the new-look Japanese domestic rugby competition.
The Kobe Steelers, who were being led in attack by 2011 Rugby World Cup winning All Black Aaron Cruden at flyhalf, had practically all the ball inside the first four minutes, and got off to the perfect start as a result.
Lock JD Schickerling made a break deep into the Wild Knights’ 22-metre, and the hosts made the most of it. Playing with plenty of front foot ball, a short ball from Cruden to former Highlander Richard Buckman, saw the centre cross for the opener in the 3rd minute.
But once the Shining Arcs got their hands on the ball, they began to look quite dangerous in attack.
Folau’s first touch came just under five minutes into the contest, with the fullback managing to beat three defenders, including Aaron Cruden, with a big left footstep. This break into the Steelers’ 22-metre led to the visitors first real chance of the night, with Liam Gill knocking the ball on what seemed like inches from the tryline.
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But six minutes later Folau well and truly announced his return back to the 15-man code, finishing off an impressive break created by flyhalf Otere Black and flanker James Moore. After getting the ball inside the 22-metre, Folau was tackled just short of the line but managed to reach out for the score.
Soon after, Steelers winger Ataata Moeakiola was yellow carded for a professional foul, with a penalty try also being awarded. This gave the Shining Arcs a 14-7 lead.
As the half went on, Folau continued to look dangerous with ball in hand. Around the 30-minute mark, the fullback once again beat the first defender on what was another impressive burst.
In the final minute of the first half, Steelers Number Eight Brodi McCurran ran 30-metres for a crucial try in that stage of the game. The missed conversion saw the Shining Arcs lead by two at the break.
An Aaron Cruden penalty goal handed his side the lead inside the first 10 minutes of the second-half, but that’s how the scores stayed for nearly 20-minutes.
Cruden and Black later traded penalty goals, with the Shining Arcs trailing by one once again inside the last 10 minutes of the match.
Inside the final five minutes of the match, the Shining Arcs had possession of the ball deep inside the Steelers half when they were awarded a penalty. A kick from Otere Black saw Folau leap highest, and bring the ball down for his second try of the night in the 76th minute.
Summarised by Stan Sport commentator Sean Maloney: “Oh wow he’s back.”
The visitors had a 18-24 lead with just a few minutes to play.
The drama didn’t stop there though, with replacement scrumhalf Daiki Nakajima scoring a try after the siren. But flyhalf Aaron Cruden couldn’t convert the try, with Folau’s side winning 23-24.
Earlier in the second-half, Stan Sport commentator and former Wallaby Drew Mitchell also commented on Folau’s return. Mitchell said that “it must be said, Israel Folau, looking pretty impressive in his first game back in a number of years.”
There are two more games that are set to be played in the Japan competition today, with the Green Rockets Tokatsu set to take on Tokohama Canon Eagles. In the other match, a star studded Tokyo Sungoliath will come up against Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo.
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
10 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
10 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
10 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments