A host of World Cup stars will be on show in League One’s second tier this season which is set for its most competitive season since the Top League rebranded to League One in 2022.
Six teams will contest League One’s second tier and they are all in action on the opening weekend. We have picked out the top game for your reference:
NEC Green Rockets v Urayasu D-Rocks
Saturday 9 December, 14.30 KO
Kashiwanoha Park Stadium, Chiba Prefecture
The two title favorites will collide in a mouthwatering derby clash to open Division 2.
NEC Green Rockets club captain Lomano Lemeki starred for Japan with a string of fine displays at the World Cup and can lead their charge for a return to League One’s top flight.
The Rockets underperformed last season as their disappointing season culminated in two losses to Mie Honda Heat in the promotion/relegation play-off.
Full-back Lemeki will be looking to channel his World Cup experience into invigorating his teammates who have been bolstered by a new coaching team led by former Wales boss Wayne Pivac and Paul Feeney, his former assistant at Auckland from 1999–2003.
Pivac steered the Scarlets to an unlikely Pro 12 title in 2017 and returns to coaching for the first time since leaving his Wales post in 2022 after a below-par tenure with fifth-place Six Nations finishes either side of winning the competition in 2021.
Kiwi hooker Ash Dixon, a Super Rugby winner with the Highlanders in 2015, former Australia scrum half Nick Phipps and Namibia’s World Cup fly-half Tiaan Swanepoel, who kicked 22 points in France, are in in the starting XV alongside Lemeki.
The Chiba outfit will miss the hulking presence of 6ft 6in lock, Jake Ball, who played under Pivac for Wales and the Scarlets, as he’s been ruled out with a minor shoulder injury.
Rockets’ big-spending neighbours Urayasu D-Rocks recruited Wallabies star Samu Kerevi and Japanese fly-half Hikaru Tamura both from Suntory Sungoliath in the summer.
Kerevi starts at inside centre with former Sunwolves fly-half Hayden Cripps favoured ahead of Tamura at 10.
Division 2 continues on Saturday 16 December when the D-Rocks host Kyuden Vortex welcome Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi and the Kamaishi Seawaves travel to the Red Hurricanes in Osaka.
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