Mo’unga late show sees champions Toshiba end Kubota’s unbeaten start

Toshiba Brave Lupus’ Richie Mo’unga scored an injury-time match-winning try to hand unbeaten leaders Kubota Spears their first loss of the campaign.

The hotly-anticipated rematch of last year’s final delivered a tightly-contested, high-quality game which was a great advert for Japan Rugby League One.

Todd Blackadder’s back-to-back champions Toshiba, who were inspired to their second consecutive title last year by Player of The Match Mo’unga against Kubota, produced their best performance of the season to topple Frans Ludeke’s rampant side.

The fourth-placed hosts have been a work in progress this season with four wins from their five games before today while Funabashi outfit Kubota had won all five games and were the competition’s top scorers.  

Malcolm Marx-inspired Kubota Spears, who were captained by Bernard Foley with versatile Japan international Tyler Paul starring at number eight and keeping regular leader Faulua Makisi out of the side.

Mo’unga’s Toshiba have suffered a host of injuries to key players such as Shannon Frizell (thumb) and Japan legend Michael Leith (calf) while electric wing Jone Naikabula (leg) has been a long-term absentee.

Former Crusaders Andrew Makalio, a surprise addition from Kintetsu Liners, made his Toshiba debut while Wales-qualified utility-back Michael Collins, who played a couple of games in the unfamiliar position of fly-half in pre-season, stepped in for the injured Seta Tamanivalu at outside-centre.

Former Wallabies fly-half Foley, 37, gave the visitors the lead with a well-struck penalty after 10 minutes.

Toshiba dominated possession with Mo’unga pulling the strings for the hosts and Japan-qualified lock Michael Stolberg crossed for the second game in a row following a line-out maul.

Kubota lock Ruan Both picked up a yellow card after a high tackle and the champions were keen to make the most of their numerical advantage as Mo’unga elected to kick for the corner once again rather than the three points.

That game paid off as in-form scrum-half Kohei Takahashi crossed for his fourth try of the season in the 43rd minute after his side overpowered their opponents. Mo’unga added the extras for a 12-3 lead at the break.

Despite Toshiba’s impressive opening 40, the game was still in the balance and Kubota came out reinvigorated after hearing from head coach Frans Ludeke.

Once-capped All Black Shaun Stevenson has been in blistering form this season and was put through by energetic scrum-half Shinobu Fujiwara just two minutes into the second half. Foley kicked the conversion to cut the deficit to two points.

Mo'unga said a week ago that: "The hardest thing to do in Japan is to win a game from a winning position.” 

That proved to be the case today as Kubota took the lead for the first time after 66 minutes when Stolberg was robbed of possession and Samoa target Stevenson broke from his own 22 before finding Foley who then put wing Yamada Hibiki through.

A loose pass from Stevenson in his own 22 put Foley under pressure and they turned over possession as Collins sent a looping pass to wing Toshiki Kuwayama to tie up the score at 17-17 with six minutes remaining. Mo’unga missed the conversion.

Foley kicked a penalty for a 20-17 lead with three minutes remaining.

Toshiba pressed for a score to win a pulsating encounter and Mo’unga jinked his way past a group of Kubota players to dramatically seal the win.

Kubota's Foley said: “They’re champions for a reason. They stayed in the fight. It was there for us to take and we let it slip. We’ll learn a lot from today. I’m happy the loss is now and not at the end of the season.”

Todd Blackadder said: “Our first half was outstanding. We didn’t always convert our pressure to points but we was really pleased. In the second half it came down to moments. The team backed themselves and showed a ruthless edge with a lot of changes.”

Toshiba (1-15): Sena Kimura, Andrew Makalio, Vea Taumoefolau, Jacob Pierce, Michael Stolberg, Afu Ofeina, Takeshi Sasaki, Hiroki Yamamoto, Kohei Takahashi, Richie Mo’unga, Tjay Clarke, Rob Thompson, Michael Collins, Toshiki Kuwayama, Takuro Matsunaga (c)

Replacements: Rinpei Sakaki, Teruo Makabe, Yuta Kokaji, Callum MacDonald, Shohei Ito, Yuhei Sugiyama, Stephanus Du Toit, Rei Ishioka

Kubota (1-15): Yota Kamimori, Malcolm Marx, Opeti Helu, Ruan Botha, David Bulbring, Akira Ieremia, Takeo Suenaga, Tyler Paul, Shinobu Fujiwara, Bernard Foley (c), Yamada Hibiki, Rikus Pretorius, Halatoa Vailea, Gerhard van den Heever, Shaun Stevenson

Replacements: Rikuto Fukuda, Kazuki Kato, Keijiro Tamefusa, Merwe Olivier, Faulua Makisi, Kazuhiro Taniguchi, Atsushi Oshikawa, Yuya Hirose