Kwagga Smith’s Shizuoka Blue Revs maintained their perfect start to the new season by outlasting Kurt-Lee Arendse’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara DynaBoars in front of 4,824 fans at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday.
Early season surprise package Shizuoka, who finished eighth last season, arrived in the capital on the back of thrashing Urayasu D-Rocks 62 – 19 in round two, a week after opening their campaign with an impressive win against Kobe Steelers.
The Dynaboars, who finished ninth last season, conceded 61 points against Toshiba a week ago having bested the hapless D-Rocks on the opening weekend.
Springboks star Kurt-Lee Arendse had started the previous two games at full-back but Glenn Delaney’s side were forced into a late change after right wing Ben Paltridge was ruled out by injury and the former moved into his number 14 jersey.
Ex-All Blacks full-back Charles Piutau made his first start of the season for a rampant Shizuoka team who were off the mark after just 30 seconds.
Captain Smith put through a grubber kick and forced his countryman Arendse to turn back and retrieve the ball and he found full-back Kazuki Ishida, who, with the sun in his eyes, hesitated and free-scoring wing Malo Tuitama charged down the attempted clearance and pounced on the loose ball.
Dynaboars centre Tonishio Vaiahu crossed from close range for his second try of the season before the visitors regained the lead three minutes later after some dogged work from hooker and try scorer Takeshi Hino.
Arendse was first to react to a loose ball following a line out and found himself in space five metres out from the try line and eased over for his second try in three games.
Dynaboars were over again after 34 minutes when young Satoshi Koizumi cut inside from the left wing to cross and hand his side a 19-12 lead at the interval.
Former Northampton Saints fly-half James Grayson, who marshalled the Sagamihara-based side well, cooly slotted a penalty from just inside Shizuoka’s half to extend their advantage to 10 points.
Ex-Tonga centre Viliami Tahitua, who leads the division for carries (64) and is second for defenders beaten (20) as well as being joint-first for offloads (six), has been rolling back the years this season.
The 33-year-old, whose a Blue Revs mainstay having been at the club since 2016 when they were still known as Yamaha Júbilo, dived over after 46 minutes after being played in by Smith.
Dynaboars hooker Seunghyok Lee closed the gap to 10 points before the hosts lost their line out and Shizuoka sprayed the ball out to Tuitama, whose one of the best finishers in League One, to score his fifth try of the season.
Hino grabbed his second try from a line out maul before teammate Tuitama strolled over to complete his second hat-trick in two games.
Koizumi, who Delaney said has been progressing well since he’s started to work with Arendse in training, crossed for his second try and a late consolation.
DYNABOARS (1-15): Hayato Hosoda, Seunghyok Lee, Rento Tsukayama, Walt Steenkamp, Makoto Daniel Linde, Kyo Yoshida, Kohki Sato, Jackson Hemopo, Kota Iwamura (c), James Grayson, Satoshi Koizumi, Charlie Lawrence, Tonishio Vaiahu, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Kazuki Ishida
REPLACEMENTS: Yuki Miyazato, Mototsugu Hachiya, Tomoaki Ishii, Timote Tavalea, Marino Mikaele-Tuu, Jack Stratton, Curtis Rona, Riku Mishima
BLUE REVS (1-15): Kenta Yamashita, Takeshi Hino, Heiichiro Ito, Eishin Kuwano, Murray Douglas, Simon Miller, Kwagga Smith (c), Malgene Ilaua, Kodai Okazaki, Kenta Iemura, Malo Tuitama, Viliami Tahitua, Sylvian Mahuza, Eito Maki, Charles Piutau
REPLACEMENTS: Richmond Tongatama, Takayoshi Mohara, Sean Vete, Yuya Odo, Vueti Tupou, Richard Goh Jones, Shuntaro Kitamura, Valynce Te Whare Picture courtesy of JRLO
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