The final weekend of the division one regular season is upon us.
The action begins in Mie as relegation-threatened Honda Heat host Kobe Steelers who have left out their departing World Player of The Year Ardie Savea from their matchday squad.
Undefeated Saitama Wild Knights look to seal a perfect regular season by securing their 16th win in a row away at Yokohama Canon Eagles in Oita. The two teams are poised to meet in the play-off semi-finals in two weeks’ time.
Suntory Sungoliath, who hand a first League One start to Nicolas Sanchez at full-back, host defending champions Kubota Spears at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo.
On Sunday, basement outfit Kintetsu Liners will be boosted by being able to field Quade Cooper and Semisi Masirewa against visitors Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars.
Charles Piutau’s Shizuoka Blue Revs entertain Toshiba Brave Lupus who have called upon star man Richie Mo'unga (below) for the first time since round 12 following the passing of his father.
Nathan Hughes’ Black Rams Tokyo welcome Beauden Barrett’s Toyota Verblitz to Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium. Two-time World Player of The Year Barrett makes his final appearance for Toyota before returning to New Zealand.
Round 16 Teams:
All times local
Saturday 4 May
Honda Heat v Kobe Steelers
12.10 KO, Mie Kotsu Suzuka Sports Garden (Mie Prefecture)
Heat (1-15): Tatsuhiko Tsurukawa, Seunghyok Lee, Katsuyuki Hoshino, Connor Wihongi, Yoji Akiyama, Waimana Kapa, Ryo Furuta ©, Pablo Matera, Takuro Hojo, Mitchell Hunt, Soki Watanabe, Fraser Quirk, Issei Shige, Naoki Motomura, Tom Banks
Replacements: Koki Hida, Takumi Fujii, Matthys Basson, Ryota Kobayashi, Kosuke Hattori, Taichi Takenaka, Yuta Matsuura, Justin Downey
Steelers (1-15): Shigure Takao, Kenta Matsuoka, Jiwon Gu, Naohiro Kotaki, Brodie Retallick ©, Waisake Raratubua, Takara Imamura, Willie Potgieter, Atsushi Hiwasa, Bryn Gatland, Kanta Matsunaga, Ngani Laumape, Timothy Lafaele, Junta Hamano, Seungsin Lee
Replacements: Takuya Kitade, Koki Yamamoto, Hiroshi Yamashita, Amanaki Saumaki, Tiennan Costley, Kentaro Obata, Rakuhei Yamashita ©, Daisuke Ito
Yokohama Canon Eagles v Saitama Wild Knights
14.05 KO, Resonac Dome Oita
Eagles (1-15): Takato Okabe, Shunta Nakamura, Ryosuke Iwaihara, Katsuto Kubo, Matthew Philip, Mitchell Brown, Naoto Shimada, Amanaki Mafi, Kouki Arai, Yuragi Muto, Masayoshi Takezawa, S.P. Marais, Jesse Kriel, Viliame Takayawa, Junpei Ogura
Replacements: Shin Kawamura, Chang Ho Ahn, Tatsuro Sugimoto, Lekima Nasamila, Sione Halasili, Toshiki Amano, Ryo Tabata, Ryu Fukuhara
Wild Knights (1-15): Daniel Perez, Atsushi Sakate ©, Taiki Fujii, Jack Cornelsen, Lood de Jager, Ben Gunter, Lachlan Boshier, Shota Fukui, Taiki Koyama, Rikiya Matsuda, Marika Koroibete, Damian de Allende, Dylan Riley, Koki Takeyama, Takuya Yamasawa
Replacements: Yuji Shimogawa, Yusaku Kihara, Asaeli Ai Valu, Itsuki Onishi, Keisuke Uchida, Tomoki Osada, Kyohei Yamasawa
Suntory Sungoliath v Kubota Spears
14.30 KO, Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium
Suntory (1-15): Kenta Kobayashi, Tatsuya Miyazaki, Kan Nakano, Sam Jeffries, Harry Hockings, Hendrik Tui, Kanji Shimokawa, Tamati Ioane, Naoto Saito, Mikiya Takamoto, Ryosuke Kawase, Ryoto Nakamura, Taiga Ozaki, Seiya Ozaki, Nicolas Sanchez
Replacements: Kosuke Hirokoshi, Yukio Morikawa, Shinnosuke Kakinaga, Ryuga Hashimoto, Kai Yamamoto, Genki Okoshi, Isaiah Punivai, Shota Emi
Spears (1-15): Yota Kamimori, Rikuto Fukuda, Keijiro Tamefusa, Ruan Botha, David Bulbring, Finau Tupa, Takeo Suenaga, Faulua Makisi, Shinobu Fujiwara, Bernard Foley, Hiroyuki Yamasaki, Harumichi Tatekawa, Sione Teaupa, Koga Nezuka, Yuhei Shimada
Replacements: Schalk Erasmus, Kota Kaishi, Opeti Helu, JD Schickerling, Pieter Lappies Labuschagne, Shunta Koga, Kanji Futamura, Halatoa Vailea
Sunday 5 May
Kintetsu Liners v Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars
12.00 KO, Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Osaka Prefecture
Liners (1-15): Kenta Tanaka, Keiichi Kaneko, Yuchol Mun, Ben Toolis, Sanaila Waqa, Patrick Tafa, Jed Brown, Shohei Nonaka ©, Kensho Kawamura, Quade Cooper, Semisi Masirewa, Patrick Stehlin, Tom Hendrikson, Joshua Nohra, Yoshizumi Takeda
Replacements: Andrew Makalio, Yushi Inoue, Ryo Iwakami, James Blackwell, Takahito Sugahara, Tomoya Nakamura, Koji Okamura, Takehito Ekawa
Dynaboars (1-15): Hayato Hosoda, Yuki Miyazato, Tomoaki Ishii, Ryoma Tokuda, Walt Steenkamp, Masataka Tsuruya ©, Yusuke Sakamoto, Marino Mikaele-Tu'u, Jack Stratton, James Grayson, Satoshi Koizumi, Tonisio Vaihu, Joichiro Iwashita, Ben Paltridge, Kazuki Ishida
Replacements: Makoto Daniel Linde, Timote Tavalea, Ryuto Fukuyama, Brackin Karauria-Henry, Shinya Tanaka
Shizuoka Blue Revs v Toshiba Brave Lupus
14.00 KO, Yamaha Stadium, Shizuoka
Blue Revs (1-15): Kenta Yamashita, Takeshi Hino, Heiichiro Ito, Eishin Kuwano, Murray Douglas, Yuya Odo, Richard Goh Jones, Malgene Ilaua, Yuki Yatomi, Sam Greene, Malo Tuitama ©, Sylvian Mahuza, Shunsuke Ito, Sho Okumura, Futo Yamaguchi
Replacements: Richmond Tongatama, Takayoshi Mohara, Sean Vete, Eishin Kuwano, Vueti Tupou, Sione Vuna, Kodai Okazaki, Hironori Yatomi
Toshiba (1-15): Sena Kimura, Mamoru Harada, Yuta Kokajii, Warner Dearns, Jacob Pierce, Shannon Frizell, Takeshi Sasaki, Michael Leitch ©, Yuhei Sugiyama, Richie Mo’unga, Nicolas McCurran, Seta Tamanivalu, Atsuki Kuwayama, Jone Naikabula, Takuro Matsunaga
Replacements: Daigo Hashimoto, Masataka Mikami, Teruo Makabe, Shohei Ito, Yoshitaka Tokunaga, Kohei Takahashi, Yuto Mori, Michael Collins
Black Rams Tokyo v Toyota Verblitz
14.35 KO, Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium
Black Rams (1-15): Kosei Nakamura, Masashi Onishi, Paddy Ryan, Michael Stolberg, Pohiva Yamato Lotoahea, Otoya Kihara, Shuhei Matsuhashi ©, Nathan Hughes, Toshiya Takahashi, Nakakusu Ichigo, Tomoya Yamamura, Yuki Ikeda, Amanaki Lotoahea, Yuta Kurihara, Semisi Tupou
Replacements: Kazuhiro Koike, Taishi Tsumura, Shohei Oyama, Reijiro Yamamoto, Shu Yamamoto, Takanobu Minami, Kotaro Ito, Hadleigh Parkes
Toyota (1-15): Gaku Shimizu, Ryusei Kato, Yusuke Kizu, Josh Dickson, Isaiah Mapusua, William Tupou, Kazuki Himeno ©, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kaito Shigeno, Beauden Barrett, Viliame Tuidraki, Charlie Lawrence, Siosaia Fifita, Yuichiro Wada, Taichi Takahashi
Replacements: Ryuhei Arita, Shogo Miura, Genki Sudo, Daichi Akiyama, Ryusei Koike, Aaron Smith, Dick Wilson, Masato Furukawa
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