Japan Rugby League One has reached its penultimate weekend of the season with Tokyo set to host division one’s semi-finals at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.
Second-placed Toshiba Brave Lupus will play third-placed Suntory Sungoliath in the third Fuchu derby of the season on Sunday,
Once-beaten Toshiba defeated Suntory 26-19 in December in round two and saw them off 36-27 at Chichibunomiya just three weeks ago.
Head coach Todd Blackadder, whose only loss this season came against unbeaten Saitama Wild Knights in March, keeps faith with the 15 that thumped Shizuoka Blue Revs 59-20 in the last game of the regular season a fortnight ago.
Inspirational captain Michael Leitch leads his team who are only missing influential centre Rob Thompson who underwent surgery on his right wrist two weeks ago.
Japan international Warner Dearns and Auckland-born Jacob Pierce form a formidable second row pairing with the powerful Shannon Frizell and Leitch in close proximity.
Talented scrum-half Yuhei Sugiyama and Most Valuable Player (MVP) contender Richie Mo'unga link-up at half-back with a dynamic midfield of Japan-qualified Nicholas McCurran and former Super Rugby winner Seta Tamanivalu.
Livewire Jone Naikabula, who is one of the most sought after players in League One, has lit up the top-flight this term with nine tries while full-back Takuro Matsunaga has shown has versatility as a more than capable stand-in for Mo'unga at fly-half recently.
Suntory have had a vastly different approach to preparing for their semi-final as they rotated their team for their final regular season game against defending champions Kubota Spears and - much like in the Cross-Border Rugby series against the Blues - they paid dearly as they were routed 45-26.
Head coach Kiyonori Tanaka has made seven changes to the team that was humbled by Kubota last time out.
Tanaka has changed the entire front row with hooker and captain Kosuke Horikoshi among the trio restored and keen to add to his impressive tally of 12 tries this season.
Former Bristol Bears lock Sam Jeffries and Australia-born Harry Hockings, who is closing in on earning eligibility for Japan, retain their places in the second row.
Suntory shuffle their back-row with evergreen former Japan star Hendrik Tui, 36, switching from blindside blanker to number eight.
Japan scrum-half Naoto Saito and starlet Mikiya Takamoto, whose been a revelation in his first season as a first-choice fly-half, once again form an exciting half-back pairing.
One of the biggest talking points is the absence of Yutaka Nagare who has failed to recover in time from an injury that has kept him out of the last two games.
There’s also rumours swirling of Suntory making personnel changes at scrum-half in the summer.
With Suntory missing any cover at scrum-half and fly-half, Tanaka said that his preference would be to play Takamoto at nine rather than Kolbe.
Behind Saito and Takamoto, only the eye-catching Ozaki brothers, centre Taiga and right wing Seiya keep their places with fit-again Springboks ace Cheslin Kolbe restored to the left wing and the assured Kotaro Matsushima returning at full-back.
Back-to-back World Cup winner Kolbe, 30, has recovered from a leg injury in time for the semi-finals and will play for the first time since 7 April.
There’s no place for Argentina stalwart Nicholas Sanchez in the matchday 23 having started his first League One game of the season at 15 in the loss to Shizuoka.
Sam Cane, who stepped down as All Blacks captain on Monday after announcing that he’s signed a three-year extension with Suntory, is back in training but is not fit enough to feature this weekend.
Click here to find out how to watch the game live in your country.
Toshiba (1-15): S. Kimura, M. Harada, Y. Kokaji, W. Dearns, J. Pierce, S. Frizell, T. Sasaki, M. Leitch (c), Y. Sugiyama, R. Mo'unga A. Kuwayama, N. McCurran, S. Tamanivalu, J. Naikabula, T. Matsunaga
Replacements: D. Hashimoto, M. Mikami, T. Makabe, S. Anise, S. Ito, K. Takahashi, Y. Mori, M. Collins
Suntory (1-15): Y. Morikawa, K. Horikoshi, S. Kakinaga, S. Jeffries, H. Hockings, K. Shimokawa, K. Yamamoto, H. Tui, N. Saito, M. Takamoto, C. Kolbe, I. Punivai, T. Ozaki, S. Ozaki, K. Matsushima
Replacements: T. Miyazaki, K. Kobayashi, K. Nakano, T. Hosea, S. Oketani, T. Ioane, R. Nakamura, S. Emi
Stay tuned to RugbyJP on social media for updates from both semi-finals.
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