Kobelco Kobe Steelers set records galore as they thumped Tokyo Sungoliath to secure their place in next week’s Japan Rugby League One final at Tokyo’s National Stadium.
After their heroic comeback to beat BlackRams Tokyo in the quarter-final, Sungoliath disintegrated after a promising start against the finals series’ top seeds and lost 69-23.
Cheslin Kolbe‘s side led twice during the first-half and Sungoliath had trailed by just a point in the 39th minute when All Black Ardie Savea crossed from near the goal line to extend Kobe to a 24-16 half-time advantage.
Savea scored from close range and the Sungoliath goal-line defence being exposed became a repetitive theme when play resumed, with Kobe adding three tries to Savea’s during a 14-minute blitz either side of the break in which they scored 26 unanswered points to put the game to bed.
While 27 minutes remained, after former Blues second-rower Gerard Cowley-Tuioiti wrestled his way across for his side’s seventh try, it was only going to be a matter of how many Kobe would wind up with, and it turned out to be quite a few.
Savea claimed a second and would have had a third but for an unselfish pass to fellow back-rower Solomone Funaki with time up on the clock and the goal-line open, which allowed the replacement forward to cap his and Kobe’s afternoon with two tries in the final six minutes, and 11 tries overall.
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While not surpassing the 50-point margin Kobe put on Sungoliath in the final of their most recent title in the 2018-19 Top League, their 69 points was a high for both League One, but also for any play-offs game in Japanese nationwide competition since the advent of the Top League in 2003.
Sungoliath, who went out in the quarter-finals last term, still have the chance to finish the campaign on a high in what will be their South African star Kolbe’s final game for the club in the third and fourth placed play-off, while Kobe will attempt to take the final step in a journey under Dave Rennie which began when he took over a side in rebuild mode following a ninth-placed finish in the league’s second edition.
Fifth a year later, and the third-place play-off winner last season over the Wild Knights, the incoming All Black coach is within touching distance of his first club title since the second of his Super Rugby victories with the Chiefs in 2013.
Kubota Spears make the final
The Steelers will face Kubota Spears in the final after their centre Halatoa Vailea was the man-of-the-moment with two decisive interventions that helped his side to a breathless 26-24 win over Saitama Wild Knights, which secured for his side back-to-back appearances in the showpiece game.
The Spears replacement, who joined the game in the 34th minute, made an impact almost instantly, blasting through a hole in the Wild Knights midfield defence that had been left after Brave Blossoms centre Dylan Riley had been yellow carded for a deliberate knock down.
Vailea’s try, four minutes before half-time, helped the Spears to a 10-7 lead after a first half high on intensity, but low on quality, with both sides riddled with errors and hamstrung by injuries on a 31-degree day in Tokyo.
Frans Ludeke’s side, who had beaten Saitama 28-24 in the corresponding game last term, were never headed in the second spell, despite a remarkable ending which saw the Wild Knights score two tries in the last three minutes to set up a grandstand finish for the 18,695-strong crowd.
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The two-point margin owed much to Vailea, who, as well as scoring the first of his side’s two tries, crucially charged down a conversion attempt by the Wild Knights substitute fly-half Takaya Saito from in front of the posts, when a try by replacement winger Maurice Marks had threatened to bring Saitama back into the match.
The charge down left the Wild Knights eight behind, with the failed conversion ultimately splitting the two sides.
While the frantic finish meant the Wild Knights had outscored their opponents four tries to two by full-time, they were left to rue a high error count alongside ill-discipline in kickable positions on the field that saw each of fly-half Bernard Foley and full-back Shaun Stevenson kick two penalty goals.
The win, which was the Spears’ third in a row against the Wild Knights in play-off matches, continued the trend of razor thin margins between the pair, being the fifth time in the last eight meetings that four points or less had separated the teams, with another match drawn.
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