De Allende's Wild Knights poised for top finish

ROUND 17 PREVIEW: The regular season might still have two weeks to run, but a lot of its outstanding issues should be resolved when the 26 teams convene for the penultimate round of Japan Rugby League One this weekend.

While D-Rocks are already relegation series-bound in Division One, Damian de Allende’s Wild Knights will make sure of a top two finish if they secure an expected bonus point win when first plays last in Tokyo on Friday night.

If Mie Heat, who are playing for their season, upset second-placed Kobe Steelers when they meet at Hanazono Rugby Stadium the following day, the five points against D-Rocks will have landed the Wild Knights top spot in the finals for the third time, with a week to spare.

First place awards its recipient a bye on the first weekend of the three-week elimination series, as well as a semifinal draw against the lower-ranked winner of the opening two sudden-death contests.

At the other end of the ladder,  Dynaboars might still have a mathematical chance of avoiding The Replacement Battle’s post-season jeopardy, but that will be erased should the 11th-placed outfit become Yokohama Eagles’ fifth victim from the last seven weeks in the season’s second Kanagawa derby.

The Dynaboars prevailed in December’s first edition, 17-10, but have won just three times since, and arrive in the capital having dropped their last four.

While the departing Faf de Klerk has often been tagged as the Eagles’ key figure during his time at the club, it’s fellow Springbok Jesse Kriel who has been the main man in their recent golden run.

This includes last weekend, when he repeatedly ripped the Brave Lupus midfield defence to shreds during a Player-of-the-Match performance in the 50-26 demolition of the defending champions.

That result has left Todd Blackadder’s men facing a must-win afternoon against BlueRevs on Saturday.

While they are sixth, a loss would make a title hat-trick unlikely, with the Wild Knights – against whom they were outclassed 46-0 on the opening day – still to be faced on the final weekend.

Blackadder must have been left wondering what was going on at times during last weekend’s defeat as his charges, who had seemed to recover their mojo with back-to-back wins after having lost seven straight, were made to look second-rate while the born-again Eagles ran amok.

Injuries to key men for sustained periods, as well as the loss of Brave Blossoms skipper Warner Dearns, who has been tearing it up in Super Rugby while on sabbatical with the Hurricanes, hasn’t made life easy for the two-time champions.

Their pride will demand that – if the hat-trick pursuit is to come up short – it should do so with a roar, rather than a whimper.

The ‘darlings’ of last year, when they made the play-offs for the first time, the BlueRevs are also facing their competition mortality after a bumpy ride that has included 10 defeats.

Add an 11th to that column at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, and a season which started with high hopes will have just one week left to run.

While BlueRevs and Heat, who are ranked immediately below them, will bow out of the play-offs’ running with defeats, seventh-placed Verblitz could end the weekend in the Top Six should they succeed against Tokyo Sungoliath, and Brave Lupus fail.

Sunday’s 40-28 victory over BlackRams Tokyo corrected a course that had seemed irresistible prior to their 24-38 defeat by Kobe.

The come-from-behind win in Tokyo was Verblitz’s sixth from their last eight outings; a run that has given them a great opportunity to make the play-offs for the first time in five years since the inauguration of League One.

Like Verblitz, Sungoliath also has momentum, only theirs is going the wrong way, having not won since they thumped Brave Lupus in the Fuchu derby in mid-March.

Five defeats since have made what would have been considered unthinkable just over a month ago – that the five-time champions of Japan might miss the play-offs – now a possibility.

Sungoliath will still control their finals destiny if they lose again, but victories by the two sides immediately below them – Verblitz and Brave Lupus – would make for an uncomfortable final weekend, when they are up against the well-performed BlackRams.

Third-placed Spears have no such worries as they line up the BlackRams who, while just a place below them, are 23 points behind on the standings.

Last season’s finalists are still in the hunt for the first-round bye in the play-offs.

This could end up being decided against Kobe on the final weekend, but Malcolm Marx and his colleagues must deal with TJ Perenara’s side first.

After stringing four wins together consecutively through February and into March, the BlackRams have gone win, loss, win, loss, and win, loss, in the time since.

Despite nine wins being their best return since League One formed, they are not certain of the play-offs yet.

A win over Spears on Sunday would confirm it.

So too would a loss for either Brave Lupus or Verblitz.

Should BlackRams spring the upset, Brodie Retallick’s Kobe will be confirmed as a top two finisher if they have beaten Heat, given the Kansai-based side entered the weekend three points above their western Tokyo rivals, Spears.

After losing last weekend, section leaders Hanazono Liners and Aichi will clear up the Division Two picture if they can resume ‘normal’ service on Saturday.

Wins over Green Rockets and Red Hurricanes Osaka, respectively, would push the top two beyond the reach of third-placed Blue Sharks, leaving the sides to settle the title and the division’s finishing order for The Replacement Battle against each other on the final weekend of the regular season.

The league’s only unbeaten team across all three sections, Hiroshima will complete back-to-back Division Three titles should they secure their 14th straight win while visiting Akishima.

Second rower Andrew Davidson will be looking to continue his remarkable run of try-scoring, with four last weekend against Fukuoka, taking his season tally to 17, one ahead of Kobe’s Retallick as the highest try-scorer across the entire league.

The former Ealing Trailfinder needs just two more to go past the regular season record across all divisions, which is the 18 scored by Sungoliath winger Seiya Ozaki in the league’s second season.

Davidson has already bettered the 15 scored last year by Rugguts fullback Chase Tiatia for the most by a player in a Division Three season.