Review: Japan Rugby Dream Match 2017
Sunwolves Edge Out Top League All Stars
In tight-fought game, the HITO-Communications Sunwolves defeated the Top League All Stars 24-12 in the Japan Rugby Dream Match 2017. The match took place at the Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu in Fukuoka prefecture in front of 11,577 fans with the Japanese Super League outfit outscoring the Top League side three tries to two.
In their final hit out before the Super League kicks-off next week, the Sunwolves had to fight back from 12-3 down midway through the opening half with tries to centre Timothy Lafaele, number eight and captain Ed Quirk and replacement halfback Fumiaki Tanaka getting them the result. Five-eighth Hayden Cripps slotted two conversions and a penalty while Lafaele chipped in with the final conversion.
Cripps started the scoring with an early penalty, but tries to wing Akihito Yamada and centre Andre Taylor shot the All Stars out to a 12-3 lead. However, converted tries to Lafaele and then Quirk pushed the Sunwolves ahead 17-12 at the break.
The scoring slowed down in the latter half with the only five pointer coming from Tanaka late in proceedings.
HITO-Communications Sunwolves 24 Tries: Timothy Lafaele, Ed Quirk and Fumiaki Tanaka; Conversions: Hayden Cripps 2 and Timothy Lafaele; Penalty: Hayden Cripps d.
Top League All Stars 12 Tries: Akihito Yamada and centre Andre Taylor; Conversion: Hikaru Tamura.
Date: Saturday, 18 February 2017
Venue: Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu
Kick-off: 14:00
Referee: Shuhei Kubo
HITO-Communications Sunwolves: 1- Masataka Mikami (Toshiba), 2- Shota Horie (Panasonic), 3- Heiichiro Ito (Yamaha), 4- Liaki Moli, 5- Naohiro Kotaki (Toshiba), 6- Willem Britz (NTT Communications), 7- Kin Sho-Kei (NTT Communications), 8- Edward Quirk (c), 9- Kaito Shigeno (NEC), 10- Hayden Cripps (Tokyo Gas), 11- Takaaki Nakazuru (Suntory), 12- Timothy Lafaele (Coca-Cola), 13- William Tupou (Coca-Cola), 14- Teruya Goto (NEC) and 15- Riaan Viljoen (NTT Docomo). Reserves: 16- Takeshi Hino (Yamaha), 17- Koki Yamamoto (Yamaha), 18- Takuma Asahara (Toshiba), 19- Koo Ji-Won (Takushoku University, 20- Malgene Ilaua (Toshiba), 21- Shuhei Matsuhashi (Ricoh), 22- Fumiaki Tanaka (Panasonic), 23- Harumichi Tatekawa (Kubota), 24- Shota Emi (Suntory) and 25- Jumpei Ogura (NTT Communications).
Top League All Stars: 1- Kohei Asahori (Toyota), 2- Yusuke Niwai (Canon), 3- Yasuo Yamaji (Canon), 4- Yuya Odo (Yamaha), 5- Kotaro Yatabe (Panasonic), 6- Yoshitaka Tokunaga (Toshiba), 7- Yuhimaru Mimura (Yamaha), 8- Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco (NTT Communications), 9- Keisuke Uchida (Panasonic), 10- Hikaru Tamura (Toshiba), 11- Karne Hesketh (Sanix), 12- Derek Carpenter (Suntory), 13- Andre Taylor (Kintetsu), 14- Akihito Yamada (Panasonic) (c) and 15- Jamie Jerry Taulagi (Sanix). Reserves: 16- Atsushi Sakate (Panasonic), 17- Shuntaro Ishihara (Suntory), 18- Takayuki Watanabe (Tokai University), 19- Ryuichiro Fukutsubo (Sanix), 20- Yoshiya Hosoda (NEC), 21- Naoki Ozawa (Suntory), 22- Yutaka Nagare (Suntory), 23- Rikiya Matsuda (Teikyo University) and 24- Ryohei Yamanaka (Kobe).