{"id":329135,"date":"2025-12-22T03:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329135\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T03:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T03:22:13","slug":"richie-mounga-and-cheslin-kolbe-continue-to-make-a-big-impact-in-jrlo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329135\/","title":{"rendered":"Richie Mo’unga and Cheslin Kolbe continue to make a big impact in JRLO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After flattering to deceive last season, Tokyo Sungoliath<\/a> already appear a much-improved beast, sitting on top of the standings after the first two weeks of Japan<\/a> Rugby League One concluded today.<\/p>\n

The five times champions of Japan, who could only manage sixth last term, head into Christmas as the only side with a perfect record, after coming from 10 points down to beat Toyota Verblitz<\/a> 43-25 yesterday, with the help of two tries and 17 points from Springbok star Cheslin Kolbe.<\/p>\n

Saitama Wild Knights<\/a> and Kubota Spears<\/a> are the only other sides that remain unbeaten in the 12-team Division One, albeit one point behind, with the former beating Graham Rowntree\u2019s Urayasu D-Rocks<\/a> 37-19 at Kumagaya today.<\/p>\n

While it was the Englishman\u2019s first loss since he took up station in Japan, the old prop in him would at least have forced a wry smile, after three of the Wild Knights\u2019 five tries were scored by a front-rower, hooker Atsushi Sakate.<\/p>\n

The Spears led BlackRams Tokyo<\/a> by just a point with 18 minutes remaining on Saturday but sunk their rivals with the final three tries of an entertaining contest which finished 50-28 in their favour.<\/p>\n

Defending champions Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo<\/a> rebounded from last week\u2019s horror show against the Wild Knights this afternoon, winning a hotly contested match at Shizuoka BlueRevs, 26-22.<\/p>\n

Japan Rugby League One <\/p>\n

Overall Standings<\/p>\n

P<\/p>\n

W<\/p>\n

L<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

PF<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

PD<\/p>\n

BP T<\/p>\n

BP-7<\/p>\n

BP<\/p>\n

Total<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Tokyo <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

10 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Saitama <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Kubota <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"Shizuoka <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

\"Kobelco <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

\"Mitsubishi <\/p>\n

Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

7 <\/p>\n

\"Toyota <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

8 <\/p>\n

\"Urayasu <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

\"Toshiba <\/p>\n

Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

10 <\/p>\n

\"Mie <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

11 <\/p>\n

\"Yokohama <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

12 <\/p>\n

\"BlackRams <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

Conference A<\/p>\n

P<\/p>\n

W<\/p>\n

L<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

PF<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

PD<\/p>\n

BP T<\/p>\n

BP-7<\/p>\n

BP<\/p>\n

Total<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Saitama <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Shizuoka <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Mitsubishi <\/p>\n

Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"Urayasu <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

\"Toshiba <\/p>\n

Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

\"Yokohama <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

Conference B<\/p>\n

P<\/p>\n

W<\/p>\n

L<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

PF<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

PD<\/p>\n

BP T<\/p>\n

BP-7<\/p>\n

BP<\/p>\n

Total<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Tokyo <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

10 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Kubota <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

9 <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Kobelco <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"Toyota <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

\"Mie <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

\"BlackRams <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

Having failed to muster a point from their first 80 minutes of endeavour, Brave Lupus took just six minutes to strike this time with their main man, All Black Richie Mo\u2019unga, unsurprisingly the tryscorer, to get the campaign underway.<\/p>\n

While BlueRevs responded through their own star man, last season\u2019s rookie of the year scrumhalf Shuntaro Kitamura<\/a>, Brave Lupus led 19-5 and appeared to have the game under control until rugby league convert Valynce Te Whare scored in first half injury time to cut the gap to seven.<\/p>\n

Sensing their opportunity, the home side then edged ahead, helped by a try on his season debut from ex-Bristol<\/a> Bears man Charles Piutau<\/a>, but Brave Lupus held their nerve.<\/p>\n

The visitors claimed what proved to be the match-winning score through former All Black centre Seta Tamanivalu<\/a> with 15 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

The result leaves Shizuoka level on the standings with the side who eliminated them last term, Kobelco Kobe Steelers, after Dave Rennie\u2019s men overturned a halftime deficit to beat Mie Honda Heat<\/a> 28-23.<\/p>\n

While four penalty goals off the boot of ex-Saracens<\/a> flyhalf Manu Vunipola<\/a>, as well as Kobe centre Anton Lienert-Brown\u2019s first half yellow card for a professional foul, made for pleasant music for the home faithful at the interval, the mood changed after as the Steelers scored three tries, the last by skipper Brodie Retallick<\/a>, to register their first win.<\/p>\n

Former Blues<\/a> coach Leon MacDonald<\/a> is still waiting for that after Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars<\/a> won a typically hard-fought Kanagawa derby over Yokohama Canon Eagles<\/a> 17-10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After flattering to deceive last season, Tokyo Sungoliath already appear a much-improved beast, sitting on top of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-329135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}