Australia’s Stephen Larkham is tackled during the All Blacks v Australia tri nations rugby match at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand, Saturday July 21, 2007. New Zealand 26 bt Australia 12. AAP Images
Stephen Larkham ensured that newly promoted Ricoh Rams got off to a winning start in their first game of the season, downing fellow promotees Honda Heat 23-15 last Saturday.
Larkham was a strategic 30th minute replacement by Ricoh coach Todd Louden, and won the MVP award for pulling off a try saving tackle and scoring the opening try of the game off a charge down from a clearing kick.
More notable, perhaps, was a star-making performance from the Heat’s young halfback, Yang Young Hun. Fantastic to see the South Korean international excel at this level.
Elsewhere in the Top League, Tony Brown continued his remarkable comeback from last year’s life threatening injury by gaining a measure of revenge over Toshiba Brave Lupus.
In the traditional Top League opener that pits the finalists of the previous year’s Microsoft Cup against each other, Sanyo topped the reigning champions 24-18.
Brown, now in his sixth season with Sanyo, is without a doubt the most intense competitor in Japanese rugby, and you can expect him to chase the Top League title this season like Ahab chased the white whale.
Perennial runners-up throughout the history of Japanese company rugby, Sanyo were well on their way to dominating the Top League last season before Brown’s horrendous injury. While Brown made a quicker than expected comeback, the Wild Knights never recovered from the Tony Brown derailment.
Friday night’s opener was criticised, however, for the poor rugby on offer. Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter, Rich Freeman, lamented the number of kicking duels throughout the opening weekend, and numerous coaches complained about the breakdown.
These complaints are not so surprising since Japanese rugby opinion leans heavily towards whatever the status quo is in the Southern Hemisphere. The more worrying issue was the state of the Chichibunomiya pitch.
Despite what people think from afar, the Japanese infrastructure is not up to scratch for hosting a Rugby World Cup. This may change come 2019, but the state of the Bledisloe Cup pitch has to be a concern.
It’s not that uncommon in Japan to see divot holes, worn areas, even potholes in championship games. The same venue that will host the Bledisloe Test (National Olympic Stadium) was filled in with sand in this year’s All Japan Championship final.
Lastly, NRL convert Fraser Anderson made his debut on the wing for Kobe Steelers as they fought back from 24-12 to notch a draw with the George Gregan/Eddie Jones Suntory Sungoliath.
Gregan played his customary 40 minutes of rugby and appeared to make no effort that I could see.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Bad night for RIcoh. They went down 23-6 to Kobe, who are usually Microsoft Cup contenders. Larkham sat the game out, presumbly due to last weekend. Reigning champions Toshiba had a bit of a shock loss to Toyota today, 12-8. I caught the first half and the clean ball at the breakdown and passing skills of Toyota were fun to watch.
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Guest
Larkham was sent off btw. George's try was his first in Japan. Sanyo are continuing to dominate the league, thrashing promotees Honda Heat 57-7. Is this the year for Tony Brown? I hope so. There's a couple of Aussies in the Sanyo team, Daniel Heenan, who's doing extremely well for himself in Japan, and Elia Tuqiri.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Ricoh managed to hold on for a 27-21 win over NEC Green Rockets, who finished fifth last year. Sounds like Larkham had a rough night. Two yellow cards and a couple of missed drop goals. Saw George play in a 72-7 rout of Voltex. His passing was good and he even scored a try.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Aside from the Rugby Channel in NZ, I don't think the games air anywhere outside Japan. Even the coverage in Japan isn't that great.
SJ
Roar Rookie
How I miss Larkham. Does anyone know anywhere where these games are available for view?
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Guest
Ricoh played Sanyo this weekend. At one stage they were leading 22-6 and took a 22-13 lead into half time, but went down 44-22. Sanyo ran in four tries after the break. Larkham played fullback. NTT won their opening game 81-5. Gerrard was a sub and replaced JP Nell at centre. Dunno if he played 13, this division gets no TV or media coverage.
mitzter
Guest
yes once you say that your shooting for goal and the referee points to the posts you must shoot at the goal, but you are allowed to take a place kick for touch
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Guest
Maybe. First they'll need to avoid finishing in the bottom four. Later on they might have a crack at a top six finish and qualify for the All Japan Champs again. I don't expect them to reach any higher than that.
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Guest
Kicks off this weekend. They've had a few practice matches. Looks like Gerrard's been coming off the bench.
Knives Out
Guest
Thanks Conor and Brett.
Roy Kneebone
Guest
How did Mark Gerrard go for NTT communications or hasnt 2nd division kicked off yet?
mattamkII
Guest
From memory there are several Korean national players in the Japaneses pro teams.... I saw them play Singapore this year and a few looked handy, their LH prop in particular.
Brett McKay
Guest
katzilla, I'm not sure if it's still the case, but once upon a time this ploy was quite legal, but the referee had to be informed of what was going on. So ref would point to to the spot, you'd tell him "we're not shooting for goal" but set up like you were, and you could then kick for the corner quite happily. I am talking 15 or more years ago though, so it could've changed several times since then...
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Guest
Nah, it was a set play. I dunno who took the tap.
couchnorm
Guest
My little Japanese mate was at the game. Larkham came on and played first five. Honda was the better side but Larkham kicking game was the difference. The Half-back was very good, probably the best player on the field He tells me that Ricoh would have one of the biggest budgets and largest squad with somthing like 10 foreigners and also a large amount of foreign coaches and staff. On paper they would be one of the best sides.
Brett McKay
Guest
cheers OJ..
katzilla
Roar Guru
Are you saying that he placed the ball on the ground as if to kick a penalty then kicked it wide of the posts to his winger? If so someone has already tried that in the Npc a few years ago now. There was a bit of a hoopla and im sure what ended up happening is the refs said if they didn't think it was a genuine attempt at goal then it would be void. Im not sure but think it may be in the rule book.
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Guest
Since we've been talking about penalties a lot lately, I thought I'd mention a clever trick Toshiba first five David Hill did in the opener. Sanyo had their halfback sinbinned, and instead of kicking for goal like everyone expected, Hill kicked to his winger on the touchline for a try in the corner. Someone ought to pinch that.
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Guest
Mike would know better than me, but my understanding is that the newer stadiums like Saitama Stadium are modern, purpose built football stadiums. The vast majority of them are all-purpose stadiums, however, and were built long before the football boom. I'd say a fair number of them have running tracks as many of them are athletics stadiums. The Nissan Stadium in Yokohama has running tracks and that's the biggest capacity stadium in Japan. Chichibunomiya is the only purpose built rugby stadium. This is the ground that will host the Bledisloe Test -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yamazaki-nabisco-Cup_final_2004.jpg
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Guest
Maybe not, but there's a huge difference between Gregan and a lot of these other guys. Everyone comes here for the money, but the competitive juices still flow in some guys. Tony Brown very nearly died last year (that's no exaggeration), but he remains super competitive. He could've easily walked away from the game (and has probably given up playing Super 14 again), but he wants that championship for Sanyo. Gregan plays for a Japanese rugby powerhouse, not a relegated side looking to earn promotion. They were disappointing last season and look disappointing again this year.