Undefeated Saitama Wild Knights narrowly saw off high-flying Suntory Sungoliath 24-20 to maintain their 100 percent winning record in League One’s top-flight at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium on Saturday.
Wild Knights, who defeated the Chiefs in their sole Cross-Border Rugby outing a fortnight ago, recorded this seventh consecutive League One win as the visitors suffered their second league defeat of the season.
Ring wing Seiya Ozaki struck first for Suntory before Japan centre Dylan Riley replied with his seventh try of the campaign.
Inside centre Ryoto Nakamura crossed to restore his side’s lead before the hosts came back through full-back Ryuji Noguchi.
Japan fly-half Rikiya Matsuda nudged last season’s beaten finalists ahead with two penalties in the final 10 minutes as the Wild Knights safely negotiated another tricky assignment.
All Blacks captain Sam Cane was a late withdrawal on Friday evening as Sota Oketani took his place at openside flanker.
Suntory and Japan legend Hendrik Tui, who was won 47 caps for the Brave Blossoms, made his first league start while teammate Shota Emi made his 50th appearance for Suntory on the left wing.
Argentine stalwart Nicolas Sanchez was left out of the matchday squad and will instead play in Sunday’s training match between the two clubs.
Hosts Wild Knights only made two changes to the team that comprehensively defeated the Chiefs.
Craig Millar came in for Keita Inagaki at loose-head prop while Mark Abbott took the number four jersey from Esei Haangana.
Suntory’s Seiya Ozaki opened the try scoring with his six try of the season.
The visitors stretched the Wild Knights defence as they spread the ball and a neat offload from Tui to Taiga Ozaki helped him to put in his older brother Seiya on the right wing.
Wild Knights immediately responded as centres Damian de Allende and Riley (below) combined to create an overlap as the latter ran in his side’s first try.
Centre Taiga Ozaki was forced off after 18 minutes for a head injury assessment and was replaced by New Zealand’s Isaiah Punivai.
Blindside flanker Shota Fukui sustained a right knee injury and made way for Itsuki Onishi.
While opposing fly-halves Matsuda and Takamoto traded penalties, the visitors then had to make another enforced change.
Tui left the field for Ryuga Hashimoto with the home side leading 13-10 at the interval.
Suntory starlet Mikiya Takamoto, who is only playing in his second League One campaign, showed that he’s becoming a clinical marksman as the fly-half coolly slotted a drop-goal from in front of the posts to level the score at 13-13.
Kiyonori Tanaka’s charges’ fine start to the second half got even better when inside-centre Ryoto Nakamura, a key figure for club and country, popped up to support Oketani five metres out from the try line and he couldn’t be stopped at short range.
Faultless Takamoto added the extra two points to hand the visitors a seven-point lead.
Noguchi, who won his first senior cap for the Brave Blossoms while he was still at Tokai University in 2016, produced a much-needed response as he side-stepped Suntory debutant William Hay to cross and cut the deficit to two points
After hitting the upright with his conversion attempt, Matsuda swiftly redeemed himself with a penalty to put the hosts ahead 21-20 with 20 minutes remaining.
Suntory pressed for an opening – with replacement Kotaro Matsushima as eager as ever to provide an attacking threat - but Kumagaya Rugby Stadium has long been a fortress for the Wild Knights who are masterful when it comes to protecting a lead at home.
Matsuda sealed an important victory for the inaugural League One champions over their rivals with a straightforward penalty from in front of the posts seconds after the buzzer.
While Takamoto again caught the eye and was imperious with his kicking, the man of the match award went to double World Cup-winning Springbok Damian de Allende who celebrated earning the bragging rights over his international colleague Kolbe.
Continuity and momentum are two of the Wild Knights’ strengths this season and they only made two changes to the line-up which impressively dispatched New Zealand’s Waikato-based Chiefs while Suntory made 10 changes to their understrength team routed by the Blues.
Robbie Dean’s unstoppable leaders travel to face Shizuoka Blue Revs on 2 March while on the same day Suntory host struggling Ricoh Black Rams at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo.
Line-ups:
Suntory Sungoliath: Kolbe, S Ozaki, T Ozaki, Nakamura, Emi, Takamoto, Nagare, Hendrik, Oketani, Shimokawa, Hockings, Jeffries, Kakinaga, Horikoshi, Morikawa
Replacements: Go, Hay, Nakano, Hashimoto, Lavemai, Saito, Punivai, Matsushima
Wild Knights: Noguchi, Osada, Riley, de Allende, Koroibete, Matsuda, Koyama, Cornelsen, Boshier, Fukui, de Jager, Abbott, Fujii, Sakate, Millar
Replacements: Yamasawa, Aso, Uchida, Onishi, Mitchell, Ai Valu, Perez, Horie
Pictures courtesy of Suntory and Wild Knights
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