Marx, Kolbe star in JRLO knockouts

WRAP: The reign of Brave Lupus in Japan Rugby League One is over.

Richie Mo’unga’s two-time defending champions had a challenging season that ended at the hands of World Rugby Player of the Year Malcolm Marx and the Spears, who avenged last year’s defeat in the championship game with a hard-fought 26-3 win in Sunday’s quarterfinal in Tokyo.

After a tight first half ended with the Spears ahead 7-3 thanks to a try by rookie scrumhalf Ippei Okada, who was playing just his fourth League One match, Spears broke the contest open with two tries in the early stages of the second half.

Brave Blossoms winger Halatoa Vailea scored three minutes after play resumed, before backrower Faulua Makisi extended the advantage to 16 points with a try eight minutes later.

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It was the Spears’ skipper’s 12th try of an outstanding season, in which just three players have scored more.

Brave Lupus, who had qualified in sixth after suffering 10 defeats in their 18 regular season matches, were unable to mount a meaningful response, with Spears comfortably seeing out the remaining half an hour, icing the contest when their impressive South African-born outside centre Rikus Pretorius crossed a minute before the finish.

The win has booked the Spears an appointment with Wild Knights in the next round.

The pair, who will be playing in the finals series for the fourth time in the five seasons of League One, met at the same stage last season, with the Spears advancing after a 28-24 victory.

Saturday’s quarterfinal saw a try by Tokyo Sungoliath prop Yukio Morikawa in the 84th minute score his side a dramatic 40-35 win over a brave BlackRams Tokyo in a thriller that will live long in the memory.

The BlackRams looked to have snatched the game after a stunning comeback that saw them rebound from the concession of three tries in the opening 15 minutes to nudge ahead 35-33 as the clock ticked into referee’s time.

BlackRams flyhalf Ichigo Nakakusu appeared certain to drive the final nail into the Sungoliath coffin when he lined up a long-range penalty attempt in the 80th minute, but the kick missed, while crucially failing to go dead.

It was a fatal error, allowing Sungoliath to run the ball back into the field of play, setting up a furious four minutes of action where they kept the ball alive until their front rower popped up on the inside of a break by replacement scrumhalf Kenta Fukuda to take the pass, which ended the gallant BlackRams’ season.

Such a finish had seemed unlikely after Sungoliath had rocketed to a 17-0 lead, with the competition’s leading point-scorer Cheslin Kolbe needing just three minutes to leave his imprint on the game, being the recipient of a superb wide ball from former Chiefs flyhalf Kaleb Trask to claim his 10th try of the season.

The early blows would have punctured many sides, but the BlackRams had shown plenty of resilience on their way to a maiden play-offs berth and led by a massive performance by their indomitable scrumhalf TJ Perenara, they did so again.

The peroxided All Black, who was at the heart of almost everything, got his side’s recovery started with the BlackRams opening try, and while a response by Trask just before halftime drew Sungoliath clear 27-10, the finals debutantes kept coming after the break.

In a remarkable turnaround, two tries by winger Taira Main, Perenara’s second and a try by hooker Masashi Onishi, went unanswered in tries during a 22-minute period, which left Sungoliath reeling, the crowd in a frenzy, and the BlackRams holding an unlikely advantage entering the final 10 minutes.

While the teams traded penalty goals and the lead, during a tense finish, the BlackRams couldn’t hold on, advancing the Sam Cane-led Sungoliath to a semifinal against his former Chiefs boss Dave Rennie’s Kobe Steelers.

In The Replacement Battles, history is repeating for Shuttles Aichi, with their promotion hopes in tatters after Sagamihara Dynaboars stormed to a 36-14 win yesterday at Aichi.

The home side, who had twice been blown away in the first leg of promotion bids after conceding deficits of 38 and 18 points, were no match for the Division One tailenders, with Springbok centre Lukhanyo Am and All Black scrumhalf Brad Webber among the try-scorers as the Dynaboars all but put the tie to bed.

Division Two runners-up Blue Sharks are also long shots going into next weekend’s second leg, buried by three tries in the final 10 minutes of their 37-15 loss to D-Rocks.

Springbok backrower Jasper Wiese came off the bench to score twice as Graham Rowntree’s side overturned a 6-10 halftime deficit to see off their game challengers.

While the relegation threat to the Division One sides appears to be over, both battles between the Division Two and Three sides head into their return legs in the balance, with the higher-ranked teams unable to fully capitalise on home advantage.

Red Dolphins, who had won just once in the regular season, required a 70th-minute penalty goal by centre Tony Alofipo to get ahead of Division Three champions Hiroshima.

Red Dolphins’ three-point advantage is one more than Kamaishi Seawaves take to Tokyo for their second leg against Rugguts after being held scoreless in the second half of Friday night’s 19-17 win in Iwate.

Kamaishi have never lost in seven Replacement Battle matches.