Saturday, 01 September 2012
TOKYO (SEP 01) – The first week of the Japan Rugby Top League was completed on Saturday with six games played across the country.
Last year’s runners-up, Panasonic Wild Knights didn’t need new signing Sonny Bill Williams as they beat Ricoh Black Rams 44-13 at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.
Williams watched from the stands as Akihito Yamada grabbed a second-half brace of tries to go with Takashi Miyake’s first-half effort and Tetsuya Shitara’s five pointer nine minutes from time. Fullback Atsushi Tanabe added six penalties and three conversions.
The boot also dominated the Kansai and Kyushu derbies.
Peter Grant kicked four penalties and converted Yoshimitsu Yasue’s try as Kobe Kobelco Steelers beat Kintetsu Liners 19-6.
Fukuoka Sanix flyhalf Hiroshi Tashiro kicked six penalties and a conversion and centre Shusaku Hamazato weighed in with two penalties of his own as the Blues ruined Kyuden Voltex’s return to the top flight, running out comfortable 31-13 winners.
Meanwhile in the second game in Tokyo, Toshiba Brave Lupus were made to work hard for their 26-16 win over NTT Communications with David Hill’s boot proving to be the deciding factor. The former All Black kicked four penalties and two conversions in a game that saw Samoa wing Alesana Tuilagi make his Top League debut.
Yamaha Jubilo got the better of Toyota Verblitz 26-12 with Ayumu Goromaru contributing 16 points with the boot, via four penalties and two conversions, while the upset of the day came in Osaka where newly promoted Canon Eagles hammered NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes 38-14.
Tomasi Soqeta, Takeru Fukui, Tim Bennetts and Mitsugu Yamamoto all crossed for the Eagles with Ryohei Mitomo adding three penalties and three conversions and Taku Wada knocking over a drop goal.
Season Preview
In a night game at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo on Friday 31 August 2012, reigning champions Suntory Sungoliath play NEC Green Rockets to kick off the tenth season of Japan Rugby Top League.
In looking at the season to come, it would be fair to say that the big three from last season in Suntory, Panasonic Wild Knights and Toshiba Brave Lupus will again be there or there abouts come the business end of the season next January. However, there are a lot of mid table teams from last season that will also be seriously vying for a place in the play-offs. NEC finished fourth in 2011-12 to clinch the final berth in the semi-finals, but Kintetsu Liners, Kobelco Steelers, Ricoh Black Rams and Yamaha Jubilo will all be desperate to make the semis. Traditionally strong Toyota Verblitz had a poor season last year on their standards when they finished in tenth place and they can be expected to bounce back in a big way this year. NTT Communications Shining Arcs finished ninth last year and in their third season in Top League they are another side looking to climb the table. Fukuoka Sanix Blues were another team that did not produce their best the previous season with an eleventh placed finish and they will be highly motivated to improve their lot. Meanwhile, NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes ended the season in twelfth place in what was their first year in Top League and they will be all the better for it in the new season. Finally Canon Eagles won promotion to Top League for the first time this season and they will have to hit the ground running as will Kyuden Voltex who also gained promotion after two seasons playing in regional Kyushu.
There is also a lot of interest in the big name foreign players coming to Japan this year. Perhaps the greatest excitement is over All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams who will be playing with Panasonic. At 193cm and 108kg SBW can be expected to weave his considerable magic and entertain the fans throughout the season. Other All Blacks shifting from the land of the long white cloud to the land of the rising sun this season include centre Isaia Toeava at Canon and backrower Jerome Kaino at Toyota. Other well known players on the world stage linking up with Japanese clubs also include former Wallabies backrower and captain Rocky Elsom at Kobe, Springboks centre Wynand Olivier at Ricoh, blockbusting Samoan centre Alesana Tuilagi who joins NTT Com from Leicester Tigers. Furthermore, Wales wing sensation Shane Williams will play with Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars and Tongan goal kicking ace Kurt Morath with be at Kubota Spears in Top East Division One. These players will join a host of other household names here in Japan for the new season.
Although the number of foreign players allowed on the field at any one time for each club will be brought back to two players there are few other changes in the format of Top League this year. However, there are big changes set to take place for the 2013-14 season with the league being expanded from 14 to 16 teams over two stages with both stages including pools and groups of eight teams.
Now that Top League is entering its tenth season the records are also starting to pile up. At the completion of the 2011-12 season there are eight players that have played one hundred or more Top League games including Toshiba lock Hitoshi Ono, Suntory wing Hirotoki Onozawa and lock Hajime Kiso who started his career with Yamaha but currently plays with NTT Com. There is also a growing list of players who look set to join the century club at some point this season with the likes of Yamaha prop Ryo Yamamura on 99 caps and Toyota backrower Takashi Kikutani on 93 caps. If his form continues, and every indication is that it will, Onozawa may well be the first person to score 100 Top League tries. Onozawa sits on 91 tries coming into the new season and only needs another nine tries to create another kind of century club. Suntory team mate Ryan Nicholas is another player who could create his own piece of history this season as another 106 points will see him become the first person to achieve the milestone of one thousand Top League points.
Japan Rugby Top League Teams for Season 2012-13
The 2012-13 season will be the tenth year of Japan Rugby Top League. The teams to compete in Japan Rugby Top League 2012-13 are listed in the following table with the number in brackets indicating the number of seasons that particular team has participated in Top League, including the 2012-13 season.
| 1 | Suntory Sungoliath (10) |
| 2 | Toshiba Brave Lupus (10) |
| 3 | Panasonic Wild Knights (10) |
| 4 | NEC Green Rockets (10) |
| 5 | Kintetsu Liners (7) |
| 6 | Kobe Steelers (10) |
| 7 | Ricoh Black Rams (9) |
| 8 | Yamaha Jubilo (10) |
| 9 | NTT Communications Shining Arcs (3) |
| 10 | Toyota Verblitz (9) |
| 11 | Fukuoka Sanix Blues (9) |
| 12 | NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes (2) |
| 13 | Canon Eagles (1) |
| 14 | Kyuden Voltex (4) |
Honda Heat and Coca-Cola West Red Sparks were automatically relegated at the completion of the 2011-12 season after finishing 13th and 14 th.
Canon Eagles and Kyuden Voltex won promotion through the Top Challenge series.
Fukuoka Sanix Blues and NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes retained their places in Top League when they won their respective promotion and relegation play-offs.
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