{"id":339943,"date":"2025-12-28T22:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T22:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/339943\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T22:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T22:04:16","slug":"cheslin-kolbe-and-co-humbled-in-japan-by-former-wallaby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/339943\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheslin Kolbe and Co humbled in Japan by former Wallaby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wallaby veteran Bernard Foley<\/a> helped himself to 29 points as Kubota Spears<\/a> bossed the weekend\u2019s feature match of Japan<\/a> Rugby League One hammering Tokyo Sungoliath<\/a> 79-20.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, who was competition\u2019s the leading point-scorer three seasons ago when the Spears won their maiden title, scored a try and kicked 11 from 14 yesterday as Kubota ran in 11 tries against their previously unbeaten rivals.<\/p>\n

Few could have predicted the carnage that would follow after a tight opening quarter ended with the Spears ahead 8-6, but it became a completely different game from that point as last year\u2019s beaten finalists ran amok.<\/p>\n

By half time the Spears were ahead 39-6, and the onslaught didn\u2019t stop as a Sungoliath outfit containing Springbok star Cheslin Kolbe<\/a>, former All Black skipper Sam Cane<\/a> and Wallaby veteran Sean McMahon<\/a>, alongside six members of the Brave Blossoms autumn tour squad, ran up the white flag.<\/p>\n

The Spears are second on the standings ahead of the New Year\u2019s holiday break on points differential behind the league\u2019s only other unbeaten side, Saitama Wild Knights.<\/p>\n

\"Team Match Summary \"Team <\/p>\n

Atsushi Kanazawa\u2019s side continued their impressive opening to the season under the new boss by outclassing Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars<\/a> 33-3 at Kanagawa today.<\/p>\n

Another League One \u2018newbie\u2019 Graham Rowntree<\/a> is also making a big impression, with the former title-winning Munster<\/a> coach guiding Urayasu D-Rocks<\/a> to their second win after they upset last season\u2019s play-offs qualifiers, Shizuoka Blue Revs.<\/p>\n

The 34-21 success was D-Rocks\u2019 second from three outings under the Englishman, and a major turnaround for an outfit that won just three matches in the whole of the last regular season.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie continues to dominate his former Bledisloe Cup coaching rival Steve Hansen since the pair renewed acquaintance in Japan, with the ex-Wallaby coaches\u2019 Kobelco Kobe Steelers<\/a> overwhelming the former All Black bosses\u2019 Toyota Verblitz<\/a> 49-29.<\/p>\n

The match was the third time the pair had faced off since Rennie\u2019s arrival in League One, and Kobe\u2019s third win, with All Black star Ardie Savea<\/a> once again having a big say.<\/p>\n

Savea scored four tries against Verblitz in the corresponding match during the back-rower\u2019s sabbatical two years ago, and added two more yesterday, with All Black teammates Brodie Retallick<\/a> and Anton Lienert-Brown<\/a> also on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n

The trio\u2019s All Black teammate TJ Perenara<\/a> enjoyed his first win of the season with BlackRams Tokyo, who held off Mie Honda Heat<\/a> for a 32-28 win at Saga.<\/p>\n

Despite tries by Springbok back-rower Franco Mostert<\/a> and Flying Fijians hooker Tevita Ikanevere, Heat couldn\u2019t quite make it and have now lost 12 regular season matches in-a-row.<\/p>\n

Heat and Yokohama Canon Eagles<\/a> are the only sides yet to win, with the latter overpowered 41-19 by Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallaby veteran Bernard Foley helped himself to 29 points as Kubota Spears bossed the weekend\u2019s feature match of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-339943","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\/339943","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=339943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}