Marx and Mo'unga set for 'rematch'

FINAL PREVIEW: Springbok hooker Malcolm Marx will be a key cog in Spears Tokyo Bay’s quest for championship glory when they face All Black Richie Mo’unga’s Brave Lupus in the  Japan Rugby League One Final on Sunday.

It will be the first time the two foes will meet in a decider since the 2023 World Cup Final which the Springboks won 12-11 against the All Blacks.

Battle of the flyhalves

Richie Mo’unga. Bernard Foley. Quade Cooper. Freddie Burns. Who will be the point of difference?

It’s also the weekend of the star flyhalves as the fourth edition of Japan Rugby League One reaches its’ end, with the All Black star facing off against his Wallaby counterpart in Sunday’s Division One Final, while each of the celebrated Wallaby and the five-cap Englishman will look to end their time in Japan on a high by leading their sides back to the league’s top tier.

Mo’unga added a League One title to his seven from Super Rugby on debut last term, but Brave Lupus Tokyo’s dramatic 24-20 win over the Saitama Wild Knights was the first championship of the 20-year professional coaching career of Todd Blackadder, who twice took the Crusaders to the Super Rugby Final but was denied in close finishes.

One of those came against the Waratahs in 2014, when a clutch 79th-minute long-range penalty goal by Foley denied Blackadder’s team after the Crusaders had rallied from 14-0 down to lead 32-30, only to be pipped at the post in a 32-33 loss.

Foley also stands in the way of Blackadder’s current charges, although the biggest stumbling block might be hooker Malcolm Marx, who was the Spears’ talisman during their maiden title-winning run two seasons ago and was sorely missed last year when the then-defending champions failed to qualify for the play-offs.

The 30-year-old Springbok – the best hooker in the world in most people’s eyes – has scored an impressive 27 tries in 39 matches since he touched down in Japan, including the opening try which set the tone during the Spears’ impressive 28-24 semifinal win over the Wild Knights last weekend.

He also scored when the Spears last beat Brave Lupus 46-27 two seasons ago en route to the title.

Just 11 survivors from that game featured in the matchday squad for the semifinal against Wild Knights.

Semifinal success followed a 20-15 win over Tokyo Sungoliath in the quarterfinals, continuing a consistent run through a season where the Spears have lost just twice, 24-26 against the Wild Knights, and 28-34 against their opponents in the decider.

They lost one game when they won the tournament.

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Like Marx, Mo’unga has 10 tries for the season, while landing 29 of his 32 attempts on goal, which included five from five during last weekend’s professional 31-3 win over Kobe.

While he hasn’t been the first-choice goalkicker for most of the season, with that responsibility taken up by fullback Takuro Matsunaga, such has been the level of the New Zealander’s accuracy, it wasn’t until his 12th attempt of the season that he finally missed.

Although the 30-year-old is Brave Lupus’ star man, the platform laid by an experienced forward pack, led by abrasive lock Warner Dearns, alongside the bruising loose forwards Michael Leitch and All Black Shannon Frizell, has only been realistically challenged twice, although BlueRevs’ double success over the defending champions will give their opponents hope.

Despite their heavy semifinal defeat, Kobe will be aiming for a final flourish against the Wild Knights in Saturday’s third and fourth play-off to cap off an encouraging campaign which saw them return to the play-offs for the first time since 2018.

The game is the second of the season between the league’s former Wallaby coaches, Dave Rennie and Robbie Deans, with the latter claiming the ‘bragging’ rights in the first following his side’s 46-32 win.

Scotland hooker George Turner will play his 13th and last match for Kobe, having signed for Harlequins in the Premiership.

While possibly now a longshot for inclusion in the Wallabies squad for the upcoming series against the British & Irish Lions, winger Marika Koroibete returns to the starting line-up, after an injury-plagued season where he has managed just six appearances for the Wild Knights.

After winning the inaugural title, followed by back-to-back appearances in the Final against Spears and Brave Lupus, Wild Knights may be vulnerable in a match both sides would have hoped to avoid.

While the league will, for the first time, have a previous winner repeat, the level of competition continues to increase, as evidenced by this being the fourth different combination to play in the Final.

It has also shown up in The Replacement Battles, where both of last weekend’s promotion/relegation first legs in the higher divisions were decided in the final moments, as was one of the ties between sides from Division Two and Division Three.