De Allende's Wild Knights in rival bid against giants

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ROUND 12 PREVIEW: On Saturday, the second engagement of the Japan One Rugby League season sees the clash of last year's finalists, the Wild Knights and Brave Lupus.

For the Wild Knights, Lood de Jager and Damian de Allende will hope to continue their fine form from recent weeks.

Forty-two days ago, Wild Knights and Brave Lupus got together for a thrilling party from which they could not be separated.

Saturday will see the two best teams in Japan Rugby League One - with 12 Japanese club titles between them since 2003 - go at it again in a match that could decide top seeding for May's six-team playoff series.

Brave Lupus, the defending champions, have strung together four wins - all by close margins - since the 28-28 draw at Kumagaya, with January's 28-34 defeat by fourth-placed Blue Revs their only loss from the last 20 games since the Wild Knights prevailed 36-24 in the regular season last term.

With All Black flyhalf Richie Mo'unga in top form after having scored his sixth and seventh tries for the season during last weekend's 33-22 win over Verblitz, and winger Jone Naikabula - the Wild Knights' tormentor from last year's final - leading the try-scoring rankings with 12 from 11 outings, Toshiba have plenty of reasons to approach the game with a quiet sense of confidence.

Conversely, the Wild Knights enter the contest in unusual territory.

Not only are they coming off just their second defeat in four editions of League One, Saitama is also facing an opponent they haven't beaten at their last two attempts, which is the first time since the 2018-19 season that they have entered a game under those terms.

Injuries have not helped the cause so far, with star fullback/flyhalf Takuya Yamasawa yet to appear this year, Wallaby winger Marika Koroibete having just returned, while outstanding breakdown pilferer Lachlan Boshier is also missing, and in a race to make the finals after checking into the casualty ward following the 46-32 win over Steelers three weeks ago.

Springbok centre De Allende struck trouble last weekend, having to leave the field with a dislocated finger during the loss to Shizuoka, but while the injury hasn't proved long-term, and he has been named to start, his regular centre partner and Brave Blossoms star Dylan Riley is another on the absentee list.

But while the Wild Knights' aura of invincibility seems to be dissipating, with both Brave Lupus and Kubota Spears counting themselves unlucky not to have won at Kumagaya this season, the latter are fast fashioning a cloak of home impregnability themselves.

Saturday sees the third-placed side welcome Eagles to Spears Edoriku Field in Western Tokyo where Kubota have won their last 21 matches.

Although the Wild Knights and Brave Lupus have shown the way this season, the Spears have quietly worked away, having won just once less than the front-runners, while building up a similar level of momentum to that which swept them to a maiden title two seasons ago.

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Frans Ludeke's men showed their adaptability and resilience last week, flipping a 0-22 deficit in the final 35 minutes against Urayasu D-Rocks, after having been a distant second performance-wise for most of the minutes before.

The turnaround was an encore of last month's meeting with Yokohama, where the Eagles took a 12-3 lead into halftime, but was eventually run down 30-22 as Kubota recorded its third straight win in the rivalry, with Spears winger Haratoa Vailea scoring three tries

Despite conceding a try from an intercept early in the second half last Friday, flyhalf Bernard Foley's performance mirrored that of his side, with the Wallaby later setting up two tries as the Spears switched up a gear.

Foley and Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx have both built into the season nicely, with the latter man-of-the-match against D-Rocks where he scored his 29th try from 38 appearances in the club's orange jersey.

The sixth-placed Eagles, who are flatlining after having won just once in their last five, haven't been helped for their date with the Spears by the absence of star Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk.

If Kubota is trending upwards, so too are Tabai Matson's Black Rams Tokyo, with the ex-Harlequins head coach having done an impressive job after a slow start to his maiden season in Japan Rugby League One.

After struggling to go the distance in several of their first seven outings, where they lost on three occasions after having established halftime leads, the Black Rams - led by some inspiration from All Black scrumhalf TJ Perenara - have turned their season around, rising from 11th three rounds ago to eighth, just six points outside of the playoff positions.

They travel to Nihondaira where they will face a Shizuoka engine that shows no sign of cooling, having rebounded from a dramatic misfire during a 62-14 hiding from Kubota, to collect wins against Mie Heat as well as the Wild Knights.

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Just eight points separated the sides when they met earlier in the season as the Blue Revs prevailed 32-24, but with the Black Rams riding a wave of momentum.

Shizuoka's experienced coach Yuichirio Fujii and skipper Kwagga Smith will have been working hard to make sure their players come down from the high of last week to turn their focus toward this assignment.

Glen Delaney has a similar challenge with Dynaboars after they threw out the form book to crush Sungoliath 34-22 at Kyoto on Sunday.

The Dynaboars' fourth win of the campaign, which was spearheaded by 24 points from centre Matt Vaega, including a hat-trick, lifted Sagamihara out of the relegation zone, and three points above their next opponent, Toyota Verblitz, whom they beat 44-40 earlier in the season.

That was a keenly contested battle, with Verblitz just missing after they roared home from 41-7 down following a dismal opening half where they conceded six tries.

Defence has been a major issue for both sides, who have the second and third-worst rankings in the league.

With so much at stake, especially for Verblitz who could face a stiff task climbing out of the relegation zone if they lose, the ability to prevent tries rather than scoring them will be decisive.

One of four sides with four wins for the season, Honda's momentum has stalled, with heavy defeats in their last two outings, where they shipped a combined 91 points against Shizuoka (44-14) and Kobe (47-5).

Kieran Crowley's men had gone back-to-back against the Dynaboars and Eagles in the two weeks prior, after having become Urayasu's only 'victim' to date, following a 31-26 defeat in Tokyo.

Now 13 points from safety, D-Rocks are rapidly approaching the last chance saloon, but they produced their best 40 minutes of the season against Kubota, which will offer encouragement against Heat, who they have dominated in recent clashes.

Despite having missed the chance to enter the top six last weekend, on the first occasion this season that they have been able to field their star test trio of winger Cheslin Kolbe and backrowers Sam Cane and Sean McMahon together, Sungoliath remain in playoffs contention, just five points from sixth place, although they have a tough run home, with four of the current top five to play in their final seven games.

This includes Sunday's opponent, fifth-placed Kobe, who continue to climb in the standings despite an agonizing 31-29 defeat against Suntory last month., their sixth straight loss to their western Tokyo rivals.

Dave Rennie's side cut loose against Honda last time running in seven tries during their biggest win of the season, and they now rank first on the number of tries scored this season, tied with Toshiba on 57.

This is 18 more than Suntory, whom they outscored five tries to four at their last meeting.

Suntory flyhalf Mikiya Takamoto has gathered 126 points so far, 11 of which came against Kobe where his five goals from six attempts proved the point of difference in the game.

Denying the 24-year-old sharpshooter opportunities will be key if Kobe are to further the gap between themselves and the non-playoff positions.

Divisions Two & Three

The faltering Red Hurricanes Osaka need a restart.

After opening with four wins, they are now facing the prospect of losing three straight as they suit up against an underrated Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex.

While the Fukuoka-based outfit has won just three times and is only two points from the bottom of the table, they have mixed it well with the 'big boys' of the section, and won't be easy prey for a visiting outfit, for whom memories of last term's wretched run of seven defeats in a row could come flooding back, should they lose again.

A loss for the Red Hurricanes would aid fourth-placed Hanazono Kintetsu Liners who host the luckless Kamaishi Seawaves.

Last week's 41-39 defeat by Hino Red Dolphins was the Seawaves' sixth of the season, but the third by four points or less.

With the steadily improving Green Rockets Tokatsu traveling to second-from-bottom Hino, and leaders Aichi favoured to extend their six-game winning run at the expense of Blue Sharks, Quade Cooper's side has no room for error in the race for a top two finish and its accompanying chance at promotion.

Fresh from their eighth win of the season, Hiroshima already appears destined for a post-season shot at promotion, with winless Fukuoka next in their sights, and a nine-point lead on the Division Three standings.

Second-placed Rugguts will be aiming not to lose any ground when they host a Yakult Levins Toda outfit that has won just once from their last seven games, while the key clash of the round will be staged in Tokyo.

Currently third, Akishima, who have won five of their last six, host fourth-placed Regulions, with just three points separating the pair on the standings.