Sensational Arendse 'dropped' for crucial Dynaboars clash

03/27/2025 09:35 AM

ROUND 13 PREVIEW: Springbok flyer Kurt-Lee Arendse and lock Franco Mostert are missing their respective JRLO clashes this weekend.

It's a big weekend for Tokyo Sungoliath, who has been a constant in Top League and JRLO play-offs since the inception of a nationwide round robin competition 22 years ago.

Tokyo have not featured among the top four sides just three times, most recently in the 2015/16 season.

Yet the five-time champions are this year tiptoeing across a precipice, beaten in their last three and in danger of being cut adrift in the race for the sixth and final invitation to the end-of-season championship 'party' with time running out.

This adds to the pressure for Saturday's clash with BlueRevs, who will be out for revenge after Tokyo's convincing 33-14 win earlier in the season.

At the time, the result seemed perfectly normal. The perennial heavyweights putting the upstarts in their place, while stretching their unbeaten run against the BlueRevs to a remarkable 15 games.

Only this has been anything but a 'normal' season for Shizuoka, who have already won three matches more than their previous best return since League One began and still have a minimum of six to play.

Significantly, the top two on the leaderboard, Brave Lupus Tokyo and Wild Knights have both been taken down by the BlueRevs, and it has been a genuine team effort.

So much so, that they have kept winning despite star winger Malo Tuitama – last year's leading try-scorer and this season's early pace-setter – not having scored in five games, while the 60 points from the BlueRevs' leading point-scorer, utility back Sam Greene, rates just 10th among the individual rankings.

The Shizuoka utility back trails Tokyo's Mikiya Takamoto, the competition's leading point scorer, by 59 points, but while their flyhalf has provided ever-present excellence, it has been those who have not been there that is hurting Sungoliath.

Their trio of internationals, Springbok winger Cheslin Kolbe, Australian backrower Sean McMahon and his counterpart and ex-All Blacks captain Sam Cane, have collectively appeared just 22 times.

Kolbe's three tries is a paltry return when compared to his Springbok teammate and fellow flyer Kurt-lee Arendse, who has been a hit during his loan spell at Chiba, scoring seven times already.

The presence of the tricky South African has transformed the Sagamihara Dynaboars attack to the extent that they now feature prominently in the play-offs conversation and will be chasing a third win on the bounce when they trip to Edogawa to meet Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay.

It is an enormous task – the third-placed Spears having won their last 22 games at Spears Edoriku Field – but while Arendse will sit this one out, the Dynaboars don't lack in confidence, having beaten the Spears in the corresponding match last year.

An upset would firm them in play-offs contention and would also tie last year's six wins, which is the best Dynaboars has achieved since it was promoted after the first season of League One.

Further down the ladder, Verblitz are staring at their worst return. The two wins they have scavenged well short of the eight from two seasons ago.

Ironically, even though that figure was Verblitz's lowest number of wins for a season since League One began, it would have been enough to make the new six-team play-offs setup had the format been in place that year.

Just staying clear of 11th or 12th, and the post-season relegation series, is the priority for the rest of the season now.

On Sunday, they meet a kindred 'spirit'.

While Yokohama is still holding down sixth ranking, the Eagles are at the bottom end of the league's form table, with their current run of three defeats their worst since the 2014/15 season, which has been compounded by the loss of scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, potentially for the rest of the campaign.

Sadly, De Klerk's hand injury has denied the game the prospect of Springbok and All Black scrumhalves going head-to-head, with Verblitz looking to Aaron Smith's experience to help lead them out of trouble.

Trouble is not a word generally associated with the Wild Knights, but the warning light will most definitely be flashing at Kumagaya should the one-time table toppers lose for a third consecutive week when they face bottom-placed D-Rocks at Miyagi.

Coach Robbie Deans has reacted to last weekend's crushing defeat against Brave Lupus with seven changes, including the relegation of Wallaby star Marika Koroibete to the bench.

Although Greig Laidlaw's men held their nerve to outlast 14-man Mie Heat last weekend, D-Rocks, and their forebears Shining Arcs, boast a terrible record against the Wild Knights, which doesn't bode well.

They are also without in-form Wallaby midfielder Samu Kerevi, while the game has come too soon for countryman Israel Folau to make his anticipated return.

Heat too, have a mountain to climb, stepping out against the competition's new leaders, Brave Lupus.

With last weekend's third loss in a row made worse by the suspension of Springbok workhorse Franco Mostert for a week after his illegal cleanout on D-Rocks' Shane Gates, Kieran Crowley's men will be up against it facing an opponent who are unbeaten in their last 15, and outclassed Heat 12-35 a month ago.

Defeat at Shizuoka might have cost Black Rams Tokyo two places on the table, but such was the fight that was shown in a contest that was in the balance until the finish, coach Tabai Matson and his troops will have returned to Setagaya full of the belief that sixth – just five points from where they are now – is not beyond them.

This is especially so given the form of their skipper, All Black scrumhalf TJ Perenara, whose 13 try assists is two more than any other player in the league.

The next challenge is a difficult one, though, with Kobe buoyed by their last gasp win over Tokyo and chasing three wins on the spin for the first time this season against an opponent they fleeced 44-15 last time.

Brodie Retallick was a try-scorer on that occasion.

The All Black lock has struggled to stop scoring since, picking up two last weekend to take his tally to eight in a remarkable season where the Kobe skipper is both the leading try-scoring forward, as well as having scored the joint most by any foreign player amongst the competition's pantheon of stars.

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