The Japan Rugby Top League Play-off Tournament 2009-2010
The play-off finals series for Japan Rugby Top League 2009-10 involved the top four finishers on the final Top League points table. Under the tournament format, the team that finished first played the team that finished fourth while second played third. Consequently, in one semi-final of the 2010 Play-off Tournament, first placed Sanyo Wild Knights (59 points) played fourth placed Toyota Verblitz (48) while in the other semi, second placed Suntory Sungoliath (58) played third placed Toshiba Brave Lupus (52).
Semi-finals
Sanyo Wild Knights (Top League 1) 25 d Toyota Verblitz (Top League 4) 21
Date: Sunday, 24 January 2010.
Venue: Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Ground, Osaka.
Kick-off: 14:00.
Toshiba (Top League 3) 35 d Suntory (Top League 2) 24
Date: Sunday, 24 January 2010.
Venue: Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, Tokyo.
Kick-off: 14:00.
Final
Toshiba (Top League 3) 6 d Sanyo Wild Knights (Top League 1) 0
Toshiba 6 – Penalties: David Hill 2 d, Sanyo 0.
Date: Sunday, 31 January 2010.
Venue: Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, Tokyo.
Kick-off: 14:00.
Referee: Shinji Aida.
Halftime: Toshiba 6 – Sanyo 0.
Man-of-the-match (MVP): Goshi Tachikawa, Toshiba fullback.
Attendance: 18,004.
Yellow Card: Hiroki Yuhara, Toshiba No.2, repeated team infringements, 34 min 2H.
Sanyo: 1- Jungo Kikawa, 2- Mitsugu Yamamoto, 3- Tomokazu Soma, 4- Justin Ives, 5- Daniel Heenan, 6- Young-Nam Yu, 7- Daishi Wakamatsu, 8- Koliniasi Ryu Holani (c), 9- Fumiaki Tanaka, 10- Tony Brown, 11- Takashi Miyake, 12- Masakazu Irie, 13- Tomokazu Yamauchi, 14- Ryohei Miki and 15- Atsushi Tanabe. Reserves: 16- Shota Horie, 17- Naoki Kawamata, 18- Yoichi Iijima, 19- Sione Vatuvei, 20- Jumpei Enomoto, 21- Hiroaki Tainaka and 22- Takashi Yoshida.
Toshiba: 1- Tomohiro Kubo, 2- Hiroki Yuhara, 3- Toshiki Sakurai, 4- Yuta Mochizuki, 5- Hitoshi Ono, 6- Steven Bates, 7- Tomoaki Nakai, 8- Masato Toyoda, 9- Tomoki Yoshida, 10- David Hill, 11- Takehisa Usuzuki, 12- Tomohiro Semba, 13- Neil Brew, 14- Toshiaki Hirose (c) and 15- Goshi Tachikawa. Reserves: 16- Taku Inokuchi, 17- Kenji Kasai, 18- Shunsuke Amemiya, 19- Hiroshi Yamamoto, 20- Jun Fujii, 21- Nataniela Oto and 22- Tsutomu Matsuda.
Wrap-up
In a low-scoring tryless match, Toshiba Brave Lupus made it two-in-a-row when they beat Sanyo Wild Knights 6-0 in the Japan Rugby Top League Play-off final at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo on Sunday, 31 January 2010.
Twelve months ago, Toshiba won the corresponding final 17-6 against the same opponents but in this clash it was much closer with two first half penalties to five-eight David Hill eventually getting Toshiba across the line.
The match was dominated by kicking and fierce defence with neither side able to cross the whitewash for a try. In the end, it came down to the little things that can make or break a whole season. Perhaps for Sanyo it was a matter of a few loose kicks that went into touch on the full and a few further penalty kicks that failed to find touch. Then, as the second half wore down and Sanyo kept looking to touch, they turned down a couple of long distance penalty opportunities to kick for goal in favour of line-outs. Close losses can be full of what ifs, but Toshiba fully deserved their win after clearly dominating possession and territory throughout the game. In some ways, it was the steely Sanyo defence that kept them in the game, right down to the final whistle from referee Shinji Aida.
Sanyo pressed the Toshiba line late in the game and after Toshiba hooker Hiroki Yuhara was sin-binned in the 34th minute for continued team infringements it looked like Sanyo might be able to grab their first Top League title with a last gasp converted try. However, the Toshiba defence held solid and the Brave Lupus went on to collect their fifth title in the seven year history of Top League. Kobe Steelers (2003-4) and Suntory Sungoliath (2007-8) are the only other teams to claim the Top League trophy.
Veteran Toshiba fullback Goshi Tachikawa was named Most-valuable-player of the final.
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