Official Preview: Japan Rugby League One 2025-26 – Round Four

Japan Rugby League One resumes after the New Year’s break on Saturday, kicking off when Graham Rowntree’s much-improved Urayasu D-Rocks meet the Leon MacDonald-prepared Yokohama Canon Eagles at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo.

Shizuoka BlueRevs might have won just once in the opening three rounds, but the side led by Springbok Kwagga Smith are not to be underrated, and their next opponent, Saitama Wild Knights, certainly won’t be.

The Springbok backrower led Shizuoka to a historic 44-25 win over Saitama at Kumagaya in 2023, when the BlueRevs became the first visitors to successfully storm the previously impregnable fortress in League One, while also ending the Wild Knights’ remarkable 47-game post-pandemic on-field unbeaten sequence at all venues.

Such has been Saitama’s dominance of the regular season in the five years since League One began; they have lost just three matches, but the BlueRevs have inflicted two of them, also ending their rivals 10-match unbeaten start to last season when they won 22-17 at Yamaha Stadium.

For exclusive stories and all the detailed rugby news you need, subscribe to The Rugby Paper website, digital edition, or newspaper from as little as 14p a day.

WATCH THE RUGBY PAPER ROUNDUP HERE

Wild Knights hoping to avoid repeat fall off

The defeat triggered such a dramatic collapse in the Wild Knights season that they were thwarted in four of their remaining nine matches – including twice in the playoffs – to end in a disappointing fourth.

The BlueRevs finished their remarkable campaign having gathered 14 wins – the same number as Saturday’s rivals – although they enter round four having already suffered half the number of defeats that they sustained in the entirety of the last regular season.

While the match at Saitama takes center stage, the day also offers up a contest of major importance for Tokyo Sungoliath, who need to park the mental scars of their demolition by Kubota Spears as they take on Ardie Savea’s Kobelco Kobe Steelers.

Narrowly edged by Kubota on opening day, Kobe sit third, having won both matches since, with the explosive All Black back rower at the forefront of their 49-29 crushing of Toyota Verblitz last time.

TJ Perenara and Brad Weber face off in All Black battle

While the absence of Aaron Smith from the Verblitz line-up has robbed the game of what would have been just the third head-to-head clash between Smith and his long-time teammate TJ Perenara (BlackRams Tokyo) in Japan, another All Black scrum-half will take his maiden bow in League One, with 18-cap Brad Weber set to be introduced off the Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars bench against Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo.

Steve Hansen and Ian Foster’s Verblitz, who have lost twice since winning on opening day, face a potentially awkward appointment with a BlackRams Tokyo outfit coming off their first win of the season, and who trounced Toyota 37-7 when they last met.

After their galling 46-0 humbling by the Wild Knights on opening day, the champions have gotten into the groove, and they represent another difficult assignment for the Dynaboars after they were outclassed 33-3 by Saitama.

The Dynaboars do have one win on the board, and that came against the Yokohama Canon Eagles, who are still winless under new coach Leon MacDonald as they look to get off the ground at their fourth attempt against Graham Rowntree’s buoyant Urayasu D-Rocks.

D-Rocks, who only won three matches in the whole of the last regular season, will tie that figure if they win a game they will be favourites for following their shock 34-21 win over BlueRevs.

Superb Spears

Sunday’s only match in Division One pits the unbeaten Spears against Mie Honda Heat, who may be fearing the worst after Kubota ran up 79 points in their remarkable performance against Sungoliath.

Whilst Honda haven’t been that bad in their three defeats to date, last season’s finalists represent a big step up in opposition, even though Heat were more than competitive in their two meetings last term, losing the first of those by just five points.

Manie Libbok in second-tier action

Division Two sees Manie Libbok and Akira Ioane’s Hanazono Kintetsu Liners bidding to extend their lead at the top of the table against second-from-bottom Hino Red Dolphins, while Greg Cooper’s Green Rockets Tokatsu will have a point to prove against Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi, who narrowly pipped them for the section title last year.

The derby between reigning section champions SkyActivs Hiroshima and Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions headlines Division Three with the formbook irrelevant given the currently winless Red Regulions have taken a match off their city stablemates in each of the last two seasons.

Japan Rugby League One – Round Four schedule (all kick-offs JT)

Division One

Saturday January 10
Urayasu D-Rocks v Yokohama Canon Eagles; at Tokyo (Chichibu), 12pm
Saitama Wild Knights v Shizuoka BlueRevs; at Saitama, 2.30pm
Tokyo Sungoliath v Kobelco Kobe Steelers; at Tokyo (Ajinomoto), 2.30pm
Toyota Verblitz v BlackRams Tokyo; at Fukuoka, 2.30pm

Sunday January 11
Mie Honda Heat v Kubota Spears; at Mie, 12pm

Division Two

Saturday January 10
Hanazono Kintetsu Liners v Hino Red Dolphins; at Osaka, 12pm
Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks v RedHurricanes Osaka; at Tokyo (Yumenoshima), 2.30pm
Green Rockets Tokatsu v Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi; at Chiba, 2.30pm

Division Three

Saturday January 10
SAYAMA SECOM RUGGUTS v Yakult Levins Toda; at Tochigi, 12pm
SkyActivs Hiroshima v Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions; at Hiroshima, 2.30pm

Sunday January 11
Le RIRO Fukuoka v Kurita Water Gush Akishima; at Fukuoka, 1pm

READ MORE: Leinster vs La Rochelle: Europe’s modern rivalry reaches its next chapter