It just keeps getting better for ex-Wallabies coach Dave Rennie.
Recently-appointed All Blacks mentor Rennie's Kobe Steelers secured first place after the regular season of Japan Rugby League One following a thrilling 24-19 victory over Spears Funabashi Bay.
Kobe’s win on Sunday inflicted the first defeat on ex-Wallabies playmaker Bernard Foley’s Spears in 26 matches at their western Tokyo home ground, Spears Edoriku Field, and earned the Steelers a bye for the first weekend of the finals.
Saitama Wild Knights, who have another ex-Wallaby, Berrick Barnes, as an assistant coach, will also advance directly to the semi-finals after flattening Brave Lupus.
Having buried their rivals 46-0 on opening day, the Wild Knights blanked the two-time defending champions again on Saturday, winning 45-0.
Australian flanker Sean McMahon’s Tokyo Sungoliath will play BlackRams Tokyo for a third time when they meet in the quarter-finals, having completed a regular season double when they prevailed 39-22 on Sunday.
World Cup-winning New Zealand coach Steve Hansen’s six-year tenure as Verblitz director of rugby came to a disappointing end as his side was overpowered by Mie Heat, falling 38-26 after they had given up a 31-0 halftime deficit.
The defeat dropped Verblitz to ninth, with Semi Radradra’s Shizuoka BlueRevs rising to seventh after they beat Yokohama Eagles 42-15.
A try by Israel Folau helped Urayasu D-Rocks off the bottom of the table ahead of their promotion-relegation series, winning 29-22 to hand last-placed Sagamihara Dynaboars a sixth straight defeat.
Wallabies five eighth Noah Lolosio’s Shuttles Aichi won Division Two after a dramatic 34-27 win over Hanazono Liners.
