Kieran Crowley finally breaks duck while star Wallabies duo’s team hold unwanted record
Kieran Crowley talking to Mie Honda Heat team.
Kieran Crowley’s Mie Honda Heat grabbed their first win of the season, a 20-19 scrape over the Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, in Round 10 of Japan Rugby League One.
Crowley’s men prevailed despite losing scrum-half Takuro Hojo to a red card at the half-an-hour mark for dangerous play.
The Heat were ahead 14-5 at the time, having opened the scoring with Wallaby full-back Tom Banks’ second try of the campaign, and staved off the fightback, although Hanazono hooker Kazuma Matsuda’s try with one minute remaining ensured a frantic finale.
Wallabies duo’s side winless
The win lifted Crowley‘s Heat off the bottom of the table, leaving the Liners, who are pivoted by Quade Cooper and Will Genia, as the league’s only winless team.
Elsewhere in Japan, table-toppers Saitama Wild Knights also had to dig deep against Kobelco Kobe Steelers, bouncing back from an 18-14 deficit early in the second half to notch a 28-18 win in Kobe.
Kobe back-rower Amanaki Saumaki gave the home side the perfect start with a try in the third minute, and there were two yellow cards for dangerous play within two minutes of each other in the opening period; Saitama’s ex-Hurricanes second-rower Mark Abbott being followed to the sidelines by Kobe midfield back and fellow ex-Super Rugby player Michael Little, with each side adding a penalty goal while their players were absent.
Another Japanese international, winger Tomoki Osada, scored Saitama’s first try just before half-time, beating two defenders on an angled run to give the Wild Knights the lead.
Even though Kobe replied after the break, retaking the lead with a try by scrum-half Atsushi Hiwasa, who benefitted from a delicious back-flicked pass from centre Seungsin Lee, tries by back-rower Itsuki Onishi and the returning Japan international utility back Takuya Yamasawa ensured the league leaders would remain undefeated.
Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo remain on the Knights’ heels after a 41-19 win over the Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars.
Todd Blackadder’s men breezed to a 24-0 lead from the first 26 minutes of the contest, including another from prolific back-row Shannon Frizell, but the Dynaboars had closed the gap to 24-14 before losing prop Hayato Hosoda and English fly-half James Grayson to yellow cards from the same incident early in the second half.
Two tries within five minutes of the pair’s departure settled the contest, even though the Dynaboars briefly closed the margin to 15 when their former All Blacks XV back-rower Marino Mikaele-Tu’u scored his first try in Japan with 12 minutes remaining.
Tokyo Sungoliath remain in third after winning the game of the weekend 39-38 against Toyota Verblitz.
Aaron Smith crossed twice
Verblitz had seemed on course for a comfortable victory thanks to two tries by All Blacks scrum-half Aaron Smith, who backed up breaks by centre Siosaia Fifita and full-back Taichi Takahashi respectively to help his side to a 31-10 lead.
But the fightback was led by Suntory hooker and captain Kosuke Horikoshi, who plunged over from a well worked line-out drive for his ninth try of the season, a try added to five minutes later by the impressive ex-Queensland Reds second-rower Harry Hockings, who popped up on the wing to pull in a pinpoint wide pass from the man usually stationed there, winger Seiya Ozaki.
The comeback was complete when back-rower Sione Lavemai rammed over from close range in the 62nd minute, with a penalty goal from fly-half Mikiya Takamoto six minutes later suddenly giving Suntory an unlikely 32-31 lead, and the momentum with the finish line in sight.
The drama was only just beginning though, and Toyota then appeared to have won it back when winger Shuhei Yamaguchi scored their fifth try after reclaiming the rebound from a penalty attempt by All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett which had bounced back off the goalpost.
Verblitz prop Gaku Shimizu was dismissed for illegal head contact in a tackle, just as the final siren sounded and giving Sungoliath one more shot at glory.
After four minutes of sustained possession, scrum-half Naoto Saito scored under the posts to break Verblitz hearts – the second time Verblitz has been pegged back after charging to a significant lead.
Shizuoka Blue Revs snapped a three-game losing streak by accounting for Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo 36-29, helped by another try-scoring double from the season’s leading try-scorer, Malo Tuitama.
Murray Douglas brace
Blue Revs’ Scottish-born second-rower Murray Douglas also scored twice, once in each half, as Shizuoka overcame the shock of a sixth minute try by the Black Rams’ ex-England back-rower Nathan Hughes to work to a 21-17 half-time lead.
Led by two tries from winger Netani Vakayalia, the Black Rams closed to within two, but they were held scoreless for the last 14 minutes as Tuitama’s second five-pointer, Shizuoka’s fifth, saw the Blue Revs home.
Finally, Kubota Spears notched a frantic three-point win over Yokohama Canon Eagles from a thrilling contest in downtown Tokyo.
The Eagles had appeared home when they led 26-15 at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium with just four minutes remaining, but the yellow card awarded against back-rower Kobus van Dyk for repeated infringements proved ruinous as the defending champions conjured up a miracle by scoring two tries in the final three minutes to manufacture a dramatic 29-26 win.
The Spears’ win takes them into the top half of the table, sixth behind the Eagles.
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