At a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon at Shizuoka Prefecture Ecopa Stadium, the hosts shook off a poor opening half an hour to eventually beat Yokohama Canon Eagles in a thrilling high-tempo game which means the result in Round 16 of the JRLO, allows Shizuoka Blue Revs to keep the pressure on the sides above them (who all won this weekend too), while for the Eagles their bid to reach the Division 1 playoffs hangs in the balance.
At a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon at Shizuoka Prefecture Ecopa Stadium, the hosts shook off a poor opening half an hour to eventually beat Yokohama Canon Eagles in a thrilling high-tempo game which means the result in Round 16 of the JRLO, allows Shizuoka Blue Revs to keep the pressure on the sides above them (who all won this weekend too), while for the Eagles their bid to reach the Division 1 playoffs hangs in the balance.
Hino (30'), Tahitu'a (43'), Odo (49'), Tupou (53'), Whare (65'), Kitamura (79')
Tries
Ishida (6', 69'), Takezawa (20'), Okabe (26')
Greene (50', 54', 66')
Conversions
Tamura (7', 21', 27', 70')
Canon Eagles started so well and won successive penalties to put the hosts under enormous pressure and from the onset it was an entertaining and free-flowing running game with plenty of dropped ball and injury stoppages disrupting the match as it went on.
Eagles right wing Kippei Ishida opened the scoring showing some excellent feet to glide through some woeful defending from the hosts to take the lead 7-0 - it was his 9th try this season and he scored in the January fixture too against the same opposition. It looked like he had added a second moments later as the Blue Revs were struggling to cope with the pace of attack but a TMO review called it back as a ball carrier led with an elbow so the try was scratched out.
They did get a second and very fortuitous trywhen the Blue Revs failed to clear their lines and the ball bounced off the head of the Eagles player and #11 Masayoshi Takezawa dotted down the gift of the try to lead 14-0 as the hosts were simply not in the helter skelter game.
The Blue Revs did themselves no favours with their poor handling and ball retention in the opening half hour - making life hard for themselves.
The Eagles added an excellent third try as the front row #1 Takato Okabe to make it 21-0 and the game looked very one sided.
The Blue Revs were playing from deep and doing so poorly and the likes of centre Viliami Tahitu'a was trying to get over the advantage line in the midfield. Sam Greene kicked to touch 5m out and in one of theri first ventures into the opposition 22m area, they scored in the left corner via hooker Takeshi Hino to make it 21-5. Ten minutes later and after the hooter, Viliami Tahitu'a crashed over for a second try from a lineout to narrow the deficit to 21-10 at the break.
The second half didn't fizzle as much as both sides were penalised and the game lost its shape. Finally Blue Revs scrum dominance led to a penalty and after waves of attacks, co-skipper Yuya Odo scored to make it 21-17 and shortly after talisman Kwagga Smith came on and made an immediate impact with his carries and steals in the ruck.
Within a moment Vueti Tupou showed some excellent hands to catch the ball one-handed to dot over in the corner as the home team took the lead for the first time - with 24 unanswered points.
The Eagles had lost both hookers due to injuries and their flashy right win took the throwing duties at the lineouts and did so very well as they tried to chase the game, especially when right wing Valynce Te Whare-Crosby scored an absolute worldly with a sensational solo try on his wing to extend the lead 31-21.
The Eagles struck right back and as Ishida scored his second to make it 31-28 with flyhalf Yu Tamura nailing all 4 conversions. A late yellow card to the Blue Revs Jack Wright opened a window of opportunity for the Eagles but some outstanding defence on the try line from the Blue Revs kept them at bay.
As the Eagles looked for an unlikely win, the ball was stolen and the Blue Revs scrumhalf Shuntaro Kitamura ran the length of field to score his 11th of the season to win a rollercoaster game. The Shizuoka Blue Revs Shunturo Kitamura was the man of the match.
The Eagles are now six points behind 6th place Tokyo Sungoliath who their match on Sunday - and there are only two rounds left with the top six sides competing in the end of season play-offs.
Blue Revs
Dynaboars
Blue Revs
Black Rams
Wild Knights| # | Team | PL | W | L | D | PD | BP | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo | 15 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 181 | 6 | 56 |
| 2 |  Shizuoka Blue Revs | 15 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 86 | 6 | 50 |
| 3 |  Kobelco Kobe Steelers | 15 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 95 | 9 | 41 |
| 4 |  Yokohama Canon Eagles | 15 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 30 |
| 5 |  Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars | 15 | 6 | 9 | 0 | -161 | 2 | 26 |
| 6 |  Urayasu D-Rocks | 15 | 2 | 13 | 0 | -228 | 2 | 10 |
