{"id":530774,"date":"2026-03-10T09:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530774\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:52:09","slug":"kintetsu-liners-manie-libbok-suffers-first-loss-in-203-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530774\/","title":{"rendered":"Kintetsu Liners’ Manie Libbok suffers first loss in 203 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kintetsu Liners fly-half Manie Libbok\u2019s 13-game winning streak was ended by Toutai Kefu\u2019s Kamaishi Seawaves on Saturday.
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Springboks star Libbok, 28, who won the 2023 World Cup in France, was on an unbeaten run for club and country which started in September 2025.
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The former Stormers man tasted defeat against the Wallabies in The Rugby Championship on Saturday August 16 when he started in the 10 jersey.
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In his next appearance, he came off the bench to add 13 points from the tee in his country\u2019s 43-10 demolition of New Zealand.
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That victory was the start of a 13-game winning streak for Libbok who recorded seven consecutive wins with South Africa to see out 2025 before moving to Japan to join the former division one side.
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The Humansdorp native brought his Test rugby form into Japan Rugby League One as the Osaka-based Liners, whose new coaching team includes Wallabies legends Will Genia and Quade Cooper, made a faultless start with six wins in a row.
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\"Libbok<\/p>\n

Libbok scoring his first try in Japan on 14 February – \u00a9 Kintetsu Liners<\/p>\n

Division two\u2019s promotion contenders opened the scoring against ex-Wallabies star Kefu\u2019s Seawaves in Iwate through Japanese lock Sanaila Waqa.
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Libbok slotted the conversion for a 7-0 lead after as many minutes, but the hosts bounced back with tries from hooker Hayato Nishibayashi and centre Mosese Tonga while former Highlanders fly-half Mitchell Hunt kicked 10 points for a 20-7 lead at the interval.
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Seawaves flanker Taichi Takahashi crossed just three minutes after the restart before the Liners\u2019 livewire wing Yuma Nakagawa and flanker Taiki Miyashita helped them to mount a comeback.
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With the gap reduced to eight points the hosts\u2019 flanker Ryota Kono crossed the whitewash after 56 minutes to score for the third game in a row.
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Liners lock Shoma Makinouchi scored a five-pointer – the first time they troubled the scoreboard in 31 minutes – to close the gap to eight points and ensure a nervy finale for the home side.
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Libbok and his side pressed as they trailed 30-22 but the spirited Seavwaves held firm to record their third win of the campaign and the biggest upset of the season in Japan\u2019s second division.
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The Liners remain top on 26 points, one ahead of Wallabies fly-half Noah Lolesio\u2019s free-scoring Toyota Shuttles Aichi who have won their last three games and scored 196 points in the process.
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Last year\u2019s champions Toyota\u2019s two defeats have come against the Liners in round one and the Seawaves in round four, prior to the debut of fit-again Lolesio in round five.
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The two top teams at the end of the season will take part in a two-leg promotion\/relegation play-off against the two teams at the foot of the division one standings.
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Division one\u2019s 11th-placed team (currently Jasper Wiese and Samu Kerevi\u2019s Urayasu D-Rocks) will face the team which finishes second in the second division (currently Toyota Shuttles Aichi).
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The top-flight’s basement team (currently Jesse Kriel and Faf de Klerk\u2019s Yokohama Canon Eagles) will face the division two champions (currently Kintetsu Liners).
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Haruki Ota\u2019s\u00a0Liners travel to Fukuoka on Saturday to take on relegation-threatened Kyuden Voltex who have won two of their seven games this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kintetsu Liners fly-half Manie Libbok\u2019s 13-game winning streak was ended by Toutai Kefu\u2019s Kamaishi Seawaves on Saturday. Springboks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-530774","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\/530774","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=530774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}