{"id":436554,"date":"2026-01-25T13:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436554\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T13:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:02:08","slug":"cheslin-kolbes-interesting-afternoon-in-japan-rugby-league-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436554\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheslin Kolbe’s interesting afternoon in Japan Rugby League One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They might be under new management but otherwise things have remained largely the same as regular season \u2018Kings\u2019 Saitama Wild Knights<\/a> enter Japan<\/a> Rugby League One\u2019s second bye weekend on top of the table.<\/p>\n

A try by Damien de Allende helped the competition leaders to a dramatic 31-30 win over Tokyo Sungoliath<\/a> yesterday, on a day of mixed fortunes for the Springbok midfielder\u2019s test colleague, Cheslin Kolbe.<\/p>\n

The South African speedster earned his second yellow card of the season for slapping down an opposition pass, also conceding a penalty try in the act, which allowed the home side to take momentum into the break leading 14-11.<\/p>\n

This became 31-16 entering the final 10 minutes before two late tries by Sungoliath \u2013 the second by Kolbe \u2013 set up a nervous finish, with the Wild Knights clinging to a one-point advantage for the final two minutes of play.<\/p>\n

Atsushi Kanazawa\u2019s side are now the only unbeaten outfit in the league after Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo<\/a> ended Kubota Spears\u2019 13-game regular season winning streak with a gutsy 24-20 success in the replay of last season\u2019s championship decider.<\/p>\n

Toshiba had just seven of their grand final winning starting XV available and seemed destined for defeat after ex-Wallaby Bernard Foley<\/a> kicked a penalty goal with three minutes remaining to nudge the Spears ahead 20-17.<\/p>\n

The champions weren\u2019t done though, working their way up-field to pressure the Kubota defence, which allowed the hero of the final \u2013 All Black flyhalf Richie Mo\u2019unga \u2013 to KO the Spears again, when his quick feet stood up three defenders to score in the game\u2019s final play.<\/p>\n

The win was the fifth in a row for Brave Lupus against the Spears, all of which have been by a margin of five points or less.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Mie Honda Heat<\/a> ended a 14-match losing run in regular season games after a 32-23 win over Graham Rowntree\u2019s Urayasu D-Rocks.<\/p>\n

D-Rocks were up against it after the first half red card issued against second-rower Manaaki Selby-Rickit.<\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s Springbok skipper Franco Mostert<\/a> was a try-scorer for the Heat, but his international teammate, Urayasu\u2019s Jasper Wiese<\/a>, experienced the other end of the fortune spectrum, lasting just 10 minutes before he was forced from the field with injury.<\/p>\n

Yokohama Canon Eagles<\/a> are now the only winless side in Division One, despite a valiant late comeback spearheaded by their Springbok skipper Jesse Kriel<\/a>, with the centre scoring two late tries in a 38-32 loss to Kobelco Kobe Steelers.<\/p>\n

All Black and Kobe second rower Brodie Retallick<\/a> ended the weekend as the competition\u2019s leading try-scorer after bagging his eighth try of the season.<\/p>\n

BlackRams Tokyo<\/a> beat Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars<\/a> 33-24, and Shizuoka BlueRevs<\/a> outclassed Toyota Verblitz<\/a> 43-19 in the weekend\u2019s other matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They might be under new management but otherwise things have remained largely the same as regular season \u2018Kings\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-436554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}