Japan Rugby Top League Cup 2019: Round 4 Wrap-up

Round Four Wrap-up

Round four of the Japan Rugby Top League Cup 2019 took place on Friday, 12 June and Saturday, 13 June 2019 at various locations across Japan.

In the only Friday game, Suntory beat Hino 39-3 at the Chichibu ground in Tokyo to stay on top of Pool A with the maximum 20 points.

All other eleven games this round were played on the Saturday starting with Mitsubishi Sagamihara playing Kamaishi (Pool C) and Toshiba taking on NTT Docomo (Pool B) in a double header back at Chichibu. Divisional outfit Kamaishi put one over newly promoted Top League side Mitsubishi with a 28-14 win while in the latter game, Toshiba collected maximum points on their way to beating Docomo 35-15

In Osaka, Kubota beat Canon 27-21 to remain unbeaten and claim top spot in Pool C while Panasonic beat Kurita 39-10 in the late game at the same venue to keep the pressure on Suntory at the top of the Pool A table.

Yamaha were at home at the Yamaha Stadium in Shizuoka prefecture to host NTT Communications in what always promised to be an evenly matched affair between these two Pool B rivals. NTT were obviously not fazed by playing away, as they came up comfortable 31-19 winners at the end of proceedings.

In two other double headers, at Suzuka in Mie prefecture, NEC beat Toyota Industries 25-5 in Pool D and Honda beat Shimizu 42-14 in Pool A while in Hiroshima, Kintetsu continued their good form in Pool D with an impressive 38-26 win over Ricoh and Mazda collapsed 85-12 to table-topping Kobe Steel in another Pool D fixture.

In the final game of round four, two of the three Kyushu-based teams in the Cup played each other when Sanix hosted Kyuden at their Global Arena ground. Sanix took the honours 27-22 to collect their first win of the tournament and leave Kyuden winless on the bottom of the table.

Pool Standings after Round Four