Dave Rennie’s play-off contenders Kobe Steelers fought back from a 14-point deficit to narrowly defeat Black Rams Tokyo 27-24 at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday.
Kobe came into round 13 aiming to tighten their grip on fifth-place while an ever-improving Rams side, who’ve been superbly led by inspirational captain TJ Perenara, were looking to boost their outside chance of a surprise top-six play-off berth.
Tabai Matson’s Rams started the day just five points off Yokohama Canon Eagles who were in the sixth. Three of their four wins this season have been at Chichibunomiya and an expectant 7,482 crowd were optimistic about their chances of causing an upset.
Quick-thinking Brodi McCurran, the younger brother of Toyota Verblitz and Japan centre Nicholas, swiftly took a tap-and-go and marched over from five metres out to open the scoring.
Lock Harrison Fox had a try chalked off for obstruction before his fellow second rower Reijiro Yamamoto stepped veteran full-back Ryohei Yamanaka to cross for the second time this season after 28 minutes.
Kobe responded when captain Lee Seung-Sin - who is used as an inside-centre at club level rather than the number 10 jersey reserved for him by Eddie Jones for the Brave Blossoms - spotted a gap in the Rams’ defensive line and ran straight to stroll over under the posts.
The visitors’ battling spirited was epitomised when they scored with just 13 men on the field.
Both locks, Naohiro Kotaki and Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, had picked up yellow cards and yet Scottish hooker George Turner was able to power over for his fourth try of the campaign after 38 minutes to tie up the score at 14-14.
Faultless Kobe fly-half Bryn Gatland, who was last season’s top scorer, edged his team in front for the first time after cooly dispatching a penalty in the 43rd minute.
Gatland turned try scorer before the 50-minute mark, his second of the season, after he held off compatriot Perenara to ground the ball.
The son of former Wales head coach Warren Gatland kicked a penalty to extend the visitors’ command of proceedings to a 13-point lead and maintain his 100% success rate off the tee in a crunch game.
Rams’ influential lock Michael Stolberg, who last week spoke of his desire to represent Japan after moving into Category A this season, made a great break after throwing a deceptive dummy to charge straight up the middle and score.
Queensland-born Stolberg leads the league for line-out success (59) and is 10th for tackles made (144) but showed that he’s also a smart footballer who knows his way to the try line with his sixth effort of the campaign after the hour mark.
The Rams, who trailed 19-27, threw the ball around desperately and their fate was almost sealed when Perenara’s looping miss-pass was intercepted but they quickly recovered to hold out Kobe.
Full-back Taira Main missed a kickable penalty in the 75th minute after being directed to go for the posts by captain Perenara before the hosts grabbed a consolation score through fly-half Ichigo Nakakusu in the 82nd minute.
Post-match Kobe coach Dave Rennie told RugbyJP: “I’m really proud of our group today. We had a lot of late changes with Brodie (Retallick) having an operation and another player sick, we lost Ataata (Moeakiola) in first 40 seconds, we had two locks in sin-bin in the first half but we finished the half in front.
“We showed a lot of composure under pressure today. Ricoh has made big strides this year as you’ve seen with their results. There was a couple of exhausted teams out there.
“We got penalised a lot at scrums in the second half. We'll look at that. At the finish line we were really clinical today."
Rennie confirmed that captain Retallick, who was initially named in the starting line-up on Friday, has undergone an operation on his groin and is expected to return for the final couple of rounds of the regular season.
“Brodie was kicked in groin and needed an operation. I’m not going into details. He can’t train or play at the moment, it’s serious. He’ll probably be out for three weeks.”
Black Rams head coach Tabai Matson felt their decision-making at crucial times and turnovers led to their downfall.
“I think for us it’s a massive disappointment, even though we were in the game up until the end, our focus needs to be on finding a way to win those games. Ultimately, we’re our own issue. I think for us as always, at critical times we lose momentum, it’s about key moments and execution, against good teams we have to be at our best and we need some calls to go our way.
“Credit to Kobe, they lost a player within the first minute. They had both locks yellow carded and they found a way to stay in the game and execute all their moments.
“Defensively we have to be tougher, they scored some tries because of our lack of physicality. Next week we play Kubota and there's things we have to fix right away. We turned over the ball 17 times. We can’t compete playing like that.”
Former Shizuoka (then Yamaha Jubilo) player Matson, who represented New Zealand in the mid-1990s and then Fiji in 1999, also provided an update on the injury status of their star playmaker Isaac Lucas whose been limited to just two appearances this season.
Matson: “Isaac is a couple of weeks away. At the moment we’ve put our faith in Ichigo. It’s for his game control and the way he leads but as a young guy he makes mistakes. It’s a really tough position. From my experience in New Zealand, we put younger players in and when they play poorly, we take them out and naturally their confidence dips. It affects them and sets them back for a long time. What we need to do is to help them grow."
Perenara praised Kobe for overcoming adversity to prevail in Tokyo.
“I’ll start by giving credit to Kobe, losing Brodie late in the week, losing their winger, they had a couple of yellow cards.
“We are really disappointed. For big parts of the game we played good rugby. We’re good enough to win such games.
“I’m really proud of our group and our forward pack. They’ve been really good for us. We just need to be able to execute on top of what they are doing a little better as a unit and put these games away. I’m frustrated, I’m disappointed but I’m still proud of my boys, the group and I believe in what we’re doing. That disappointment doesn’t discredit the work done by Kobe today.”
The Rams host Frans Ludeke’s resurgent former champions Kubota Spears at the same venue on Sunday 6 April while Kobe entertain champions Toshiba Brave Lupus, who today become the first team to qualify for the play-offs, in Hyogo in seven days time.
Pictures courtesy of BR Tokyo and Kobe
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