Springboks and All Blacks star in Japan as Ardie Savea scores FOUR and Richie Mo’unga outplays Quade Cooper
Ardie Savea, Lood de Jager and Nicolas Sanchez in club action in Japan.
Saitama Wild Knights and Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo meet in a decisive top-of-the-table clash in Saitama on Saturday, with at least one of the two one hundred per cent records in the Japan Rugby League One set to end after both won their matches in round eight this weekend.
The Wild Knights remain a point ahead of the Lupus in the table after another brace of tries from the prolific lock Lood de Jager helped them to a 45-19 win at Shizuoka BlueRevs.
The visitors had the bonus point wrapped up at half-time, courtesy of Springbok De Jager‘s first try, along with others from Ryota Hasegawa, Taiki Koyama and Dylan Riley. But two tries from BlueRevs wing Malo Tuitama kept the hosts in touch, as did an early second-half try from flanker Richard Goh Jones, who scored almost with his first touch of the ball.
De Jager double
But De Jager’s second was a killer blow, and there was a late coup de Grace from young hooker Atsushi Sakate to take the Wild Knights to an unassailable lead.
The Brave Lupus made harder work than would be expected at Hanazono Kintetsu Liners in a game which saw All Blacks star Richie Mo’unga opposite Quade Cooper, who had perhaps his best game yet since moving to Japan.
As with the Wild Knights, the Brave Lupus were also four tries in at the break, with two from Seta Tamanivalu and one each from Warner Dearns and Mamoru Harada. But tries from Jose Seru and Tomoya Kimura, along with a conversion and penalty from Cooper, kept the Liners in touch.
Seru bagged a second early in the second half as a shock threatened, but with snow starting to fall, Harada restored the lead off the back of a maul before Cooper barged through Mo’unga on the short side to narrow the gap once again. He then delivered a sumptuous offload to flanker Takahito Sugahara before converting the latter’s try to give the Liners a shock lead.
But Mo’unga scorched down the blind side to put in Masaki Hamada, then delivered a magnificent 30 metre pass to the right to send in Taiki Matsunobu, and then casually lobbed another 15 metre pass over the blitzing defence on the left to set up Hamada once again and leave the Liners sunk. It’s going to be some match this weekend in Saitama.
Ardie Savea stars
Elsewhere in Japan, third-placed Tokyo Sungloiath destroyed the Black Rams Tokoyo 62-0, with Nicolas Sanchez making a late appearance as a substitute and kicking a couple of goals.
Fourth-placed Kobelco Kobe Steelers saw off Toyota Verblitz 57-22, with Ardie Savea and Bryn Gatland both in terrific form. All Black Savea dotted down for four tries, while Gatland landed seven conversions and a penalty to go with a try of his own. But it was a disappointing day for the Verblitz, who had an 8-9-10 axis of Pieter-Steph du Toit, Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett, but folded badly in the second half.
Ardie Savea bags FOUR in Japan and saves the best for last 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Jd1OqhxAZP
— RUGBYcomau (@rugbycomau) March 4, 2024
Yokohama Canon Eagles saw off the winless Mie Honda Heat with a minimum of fuss, winning 50-21 at the Heat, for whom Franco Mostert scored his first try of the season.
And in the closest game of the weekend, the Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars surprised the Kubota Spears with a 34-28 win at the Spears’ home ground. Two second-half tries from South African lock Walt Steenkamp turned the game around for the visitors, who move to eighth, two places behind the Spears.
