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Is this Rikiya Matsuda’s moment of truth?
Is this former Wild Knights’ flyhalf Rikiya Matsuda’s moment of truth?
After a stellar career at the club that encompassed seven years, two titles, 87 games and 788 points, the 30-year-old pivot will confront his former teammates for the first time since his off-season move to Aichi when Toyota Verblitz tackle the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights on Sunday.
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While technically a ‘home’ game for Verblitz, the weekend’s feature match will in effect be played on neutral territory as part of Japan Rugby League One’s strategy to extend the game’s national footprint, with Mikuni World Stadium at Fukuoka the venue as Toyota bids to break a stranglehold the Wild Knights have held over them since the Covid pandemic.
Such has been the Saitama-based side’s dominance, it has won all seven meetings, surpassing the 40-point mark in five of those games.
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In a game of many subplots, the relationship between the respective coaches forms another intriguing background.
Robbie Deans (Wild Knights) and Steve Hansen (Verblitz) once shared the coaching box at the Crusaders before Hansen left his assistant’s role in 2001 for a bumpy ride as national coach of Wales.
Hansen’s All Blacks subsequently dominated Deans’s Wallabies during their time as Bledisloe Cup coaches, but the boot has been on the other foot since they landed in Japan.
Since Hansen became Director of Rugby at Toyota following the All Blacks exit at the Japan-hosted 2019 Rugby World Cup, Verblitz has never beaten the Wild Knights.
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Perhaps the most dramatic evidence of the mental block Toyota has came last year.
Verblitz was in command of the first match between the sides, leading 27-8 at halftime but collapsed, held scoreless in the second period as the Wild Knights romped home 43-27.
Having recruited various big names throughout his time in Japan in an attempt to address his side’s mental fragility, such as Kieran Read, Beauden Barrett, Pieter Steph du Toit and Aaron Smith, Hansen has now turned to Matsuda, one of the Wild Knights’ key men as they bossed the relationship.
In the seven wins against Verblitz, the 39-cap Brave Blossoms international scored 82 points.
Although Matsuda’s start in the olive jersey hasn’t been as convincing as either he or his coach will have liked, Toyota arrives in Kyushu off the back of their first win of the season.
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Going back-to-back by taking down the unbeaten Wild Knights, and the Verblitz season will really have lift off.
Sunday is a special day in Kansai as the Kobelco Kobe Steelers remember the 1995 earthquake, which saw a quarter of the buildings in Kobe destroyed with over 6000 people losing their lives.
The team will wear a special commemorative jersey against Urayasu D-Rocks.
Mie Heat welcome Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath that afternoon while Saturday’s games see Kubota Spears Funabashi-Tokyo Bay host Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo, Shizuoka Blue Revs meet unbeaten Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, and Yokohama Canon Eagles play Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars.
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