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Robbie Deans secures fifth Japanese title with Wild Knights

TOKYO, JAPAN - MAY 29: Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights players celebrate. (Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)

Tries from the Australian connection of Marika Koroibete and Dylan Riley have secured Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights the inaugural Japan Rugby League One title.

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The Wild Knights prevailed 18-12 over Suntory Sungoliath in sweltering conditions at Japan’s National Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday.

Capped by Japan last year, Gold Coast-born Riley was involved in the lead-up to Koroibete’s 28th minute try, drawing in two defenders to create the space for the Wallabies winger to score the game’s opening five-pointer.

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      Centre Riley collected one of his own in the 73rd minute to push the Wild Knights out to their six-point winning margin.

      Trailing 10-3 at halftime, Suntory were kept in the game by the boot of All Black Damien McKenzie, whose four penalty goals brought his side to within a point of the Wild Knights heading into the last 15 minutes.

      The Wild Knights were missing their influential Japanese Test five-eighth Rikiya Mat suda but his replacement Takuya Yamasawa pulled off the play of the match just before halftime when he knocked the ball from McKenzie’s grasp as he was diving for the tryline.

      Despite some powerful charges from Wallabies midfielder Samu Kerevi, Suntory never threatened the Saitama goal-line again.

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      Kerevi and Koroibete are set to be involved in Australia’s three-Test series against England in July.

      The win was the former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans’s fifth title with the Wild Knights, matching the five from his time in charge of the Crusaders in Super Rugby.

      Fellow Aussies Jack Cornelsen, Ben Gunter and Semisi Tupou were part of the winning line-up, while the Kiwi pairing of flanker Lachlan Boshier and midfielder Vince Aso were also valuable contributors.

      The fortunes were mixed for other Australians on the final weekend.

      Former Wallabies playmaker Bernard Foley helped Kubota Spears to finish third after a 23-15 win over a Toshiba Brave Lupus side that featured Australi an lock Hugh Pyle.

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      But Israel Folau will be playing in the second division next year after the Rob Penney-coached NTT Communications Shining Arcs lost the second leg of their relegation series 33-19 to the Mitsubishi Dynaboars.

      Michael Cheika ‘s NEC Green Rockets survived in the top section despite winning just one game all season, edging Honda Heat on points scored across a two-legged promotion play-off where each side won one match.

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      S
      SM 1 hour ago
      Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

      NZ Rugby high performance has fallen behind, it used to pump out more quality 10s than it had teams for. Now there are no international quality players coming through the system and the players that are coming through are not getting enough quality minutes driving teams on the field.


      JOC was a great pick up for the Crusaders.


      Both Rivez and Taha have a lot of potential and some mentoring from a player like JOC could bring their game management, tactical kicking and dealing with the pressure of being the driver of a Super Rugby team at a young age as he has been through it and made a few mistakes in his younger years.


      This old school view that NZR has about not selecting any players from overseas is an 80s amateur view.


      The ABs don't need to pick the whole squad from overseas but if the had 2-3 players that had already put in some time in Super Rugby it benifits both the ABs and the next level of talent that can build skills in Super Rugby rather than be lost to Japan, the UK or France.


      NZR is losing sponsors and players are leaving for the extra dollars earlier in their careers now.


      Professional careers are short and the NZR sabbaticals don't cut it anymore for the top elite AB players.


      The Japanese League One teams want the big ticket international players for longer contracts to develop more Japan eligible players by playing with these top tier international players for their future and to make a quality depth pool of players for the Japan national team to be higher ranked internationally.


      NZR need to get a professional attitude as the current lip service they give makes them look like a 3 ring circus and the ABs slide further from the top the longer this short sighted amateur thinking forms their decisions on key areas which holts professionalism moving forward for rugby in NZ.

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