Kwagga Smith bags bragging rights in No. 8 battle against Jasper Wiese
WRAP: A try by Springbok Jasper Wiese came too late to rescue Urayasu D-Rocks who will play the promotion/relegation series for a fourth consecutive season after their 26-49 loss to Shizuoka Blue Revs on Friday night.
Needing a maximum point return to keep their slim play-off hopes alive, the Kwagga Smith-led BlueRevs bounded to a 28-0 halftime lead before resisting a D-Rocks fightback that at one stage threatened to deny Shizuoka the vital Brave Blossoms winger Malo Tuitama’s fifth try from his last seven outings two minutes before the end made the try-scoring bonus safe. Shizuoka finished with a seven-try-to-four count in their favour.
Having scored just his second try of the season during last week’s win over Sungoliath, World Rugby Player of the Year Malcolm Marx added two more as Kubota Spears dispatched the visitors 54-21 to extend their winning sequence at the ground to 25.
A tight opening saw Kubota ahead by just one point when the Springbok hooker made his first intervention, five minutes before halftime.
When scrumhalf Ippei Okada also scored before the break, Honda suddenly found themselves 20-7 down, with the deficit increasing shortly after the re-start when Marx scored again.
Although fullback Lemeki Lomano Lava and the in-form Flying Fijians’ test hooker Tevita Ikanivere gave Honda hope with tries; the latter’s ninth of the season, Honda still trailed by nine and Okada’s second five-pointer of the afternoon shut the door.
As well as putting the game out of reach, the try precipitated a collapse as Honda leaked four tries in the final 11 minutes, allowing Kubota to pocket maximum points.
全員で身体を張った横浜EがBL東京に勝利!!
同一カードでの勝利は、2023年2月18日(土)以来！
横浜E ジェシー ・クリエル キャプテンがPOM!!📅2026年4月25日(土)
🏉東芝ブレイブルーパス東京 V 横浜キヤノンイーグルス
🏟秩父宮ラグビー場 (東京都)#NTTリーグワン #リーグワン pic.twitter.com/fPnNNGv3Oe— JAPAN RUGBY LEAGUE ONE｜リーグワン🏉 (@LeagueOne_JP) April 25, 2026
On a bad day for Brave Lupus, who would have taken a major step towards playoffs qualification with a bonus point win, Toshiba conceded three tries in 10 minutes either side of halftime while flyhalf Richie Mo’unga was in the sinbin.
The triple strike, which included the second of two for the afternoon from the inspirational Eagles skipper and Springbok outside centre Jesse Kriel, floored their higher-ranked opponents.
It was 14-5 when the All Black exited; a scarcely believable 33-5 when he returned.
While the outcome has left Toshiba under pressure to hold onto their tickets for the playoffs, the Eagles are in the box seat to avoid the post-season relegation series, seven points ahead of 11th placed Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars, whom they face next.
Avoid defeat and what once seemed an unlikely salvage job will have been completed with 80 minutes of the season to spare.
Having averaged 57 points a game across the seven most recent engagements between the teams prior to the start of this season, history suggested Saitama Wild Knights would be far too strong for the Dynaboars.
So, it proved, as the home side ‘batted’ to their pre-season average in a 57-19 win.
While they had ‘held’ the Wild Knights to 33 points, in a 33-3 defeat earlier in the competition, the half century was already on the horizon by halftime yesterday, looming large after the break when inside centre Damian de Allende matched his Springbok midfield mate Kriel by touching down for the second of his two tries.
By the time the fulltime whistle blew at Kumagaya, Saitama had bagged nine tries to secure their eighth try-scoring bonus point from 16 matches.
This is three try-scoring extras less than Kobelco Kobe Steelers.
Dave Rennie’s charges are just a point behind the Wild Knights on the table despite suffering a defeat more, thanks to their 11 bonus points for tries; the latest picked up in a 49-28 demolition of Tokyo Sungoliath.
Kobe are averaging six-and-a-half tries a game; a tally they exceeded against Sungoliath where they deposited seven in the ‘bank’ to take their account beyond 100 tries for the season, the first side in the league to do so.
Sixteen of Kobe’s 105 tries have been scored by their irrepressible skipper, All Black second rower Brodie Retallick, who has failed to cross the opposing goal-line just five times in 16 appearances.
Free of injury after subjecting his body to years of battering on test duty, the 34-year-old is running around with the energy of a first season rookie, and he opened the scoring at Hyogo to set the home side on their way.
Leading in word and by deed, Retallick completed his double midway through the second half as Kobe held the visitors from the capital at bay, picking up the extra log point despite conceding four tries.
Although they suffered a fifth consecutive defeat, results below them on the table continue to work in Sungoliath’s favour and they remain in charge of their finals destiny.
The same cannot be said for Mie Honda Heat, whose shoots of promise following a string of three wins, have withered after they backed up last week’s 44-point stinker against the BlackRams with a 33-point hammering at Spears Edoriku Field.
