Panasonic Wild Knights extend Canon Eagles' 14 year agony

A stirring second half allowed Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights to retain their lead in Japan Rugby League One, while also furthering the 14-year agony for Yokohama Canon Eagles following their 51-36 defeat in Tokyo today.

The Wild Knights prevailed after an incident packed afternoon where they had prop Taiki Fujii sent off for two yellow cards, conceded a penalty try, and had to finish with uncontested scrums.

Canon had not beaten Panasonic in their last 16 attempts but might have thought that this was going to be their day when they overcame the shock of conceding two early tries, both scored by Wild Knights winger Koki Takeyama, to hit the front shortly before halftime.

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Although the league-leaders had edged ahead again early in the second half, the game-changing moment came when Yokohama had a try by winger Chihito Matsui disallowed, after it had already been converted, due to the TMO belatedly intervening to rule on an early tackle on Saitama’s Vince Aso in the lead-up.

Instead of trailing 31-30, the deflated Eagles stayed eight points behind, and they rarely threatened to wrest back the initiative for the remainder of the contest.

Toshiba Brave Lupus continue to press the Wild Knights hard, following up last weekend’s draw at Saitama by prevailing in another high-scoring Fuchu Derby against Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath.

The derby has been a points fest in the four years since League One began and yesterday’s instalment had the same script, with the 43-33 win by Todd Blackadder’s men producing 11 tries and a match aggregate of 76 points, 14 above the combined average of 62 from the last eight games.

In winning a tit-for-tat battle that twice saw a one-point separation, it took until the last 10 minutes for Brave Lupus to finally shake off their local rivals, with ex-Maori All Black midfielder Rob Thompson and hooker Daigo Hashimoto scoring the tries that put the game to bed.

Earlier, Richie Mo’unga scored his fourth try for the season, while Brave Lupus teammate and Japan test winger Jone Naikabula had crossed twice, taking his tally to eight which ranks him third on the season try-scoring standings.

Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay are hot-on-the-heels of the defending champions, two points behind after coming from 20-3 down at halftime to beat Kobelco Kobe Steelers 25-20.

Urayasu D-Rocks were also held scoreless in the second period of the basement battle and remain bottom-of-the-table after surrendering a seven-point lead in their 44-22 loss against Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo.

The Black Rams’ win has drawn them within a point of Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz on the standings after they were outgunned by fourth-placed Shizuoka Blue Revs, 33-23 at Gifu.

Verblitz have now lost four-in-a-row and dropped to 10th after Mie Honda Heat scored in the last minute to beat Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars 38-37 in today’s match at Suzuka.