Our 2024-2025 JRLO Round 3 Preview for the first matches of 2025, with fixtures played on January 4-5 in Japan across all three divisions.
Results Round 2
You can read more from Round 2 in the JRLO here.
Division 1
- Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo 33-32 Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath
- Urayasu D-Rocks 19-62 Shizuoka Blue Revs; at Kumamoto
- Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights 26-24 Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay
- Toyota Verblitz 17-21 Mie Honda Heat
- Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo 61-8 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars
- Kobelco Kobe Steelers 36-18 Yokohama Canon Eagles
Division 2
- Japan Steel Kamaishi Seawaves 17-59 NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu
- Shimizu Koto Blue Sharks 41-33 Kyushu Electric Power Kyuden Voltex
- Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi 22-30 Red Hurricanes Osaka
Division 3
- Kurita Water Gush Akishima 16-29 Yakult Levins Toda
- Sayama Rugguts 27-31 SkyActivs Hiroshima
Division One JRLO 2024-2025 – Round 3 Fixtures
Saturday 4 January 2025 – All times shown are Japan local time.
- Urayasu D-Rocks v Yokohama Canon Eagles; at Fukushima, 12pm
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars v Shizuoka Blue Revs; at Tokyo, 12pm
- Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo v Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights; at Tokyo, 1pm
- Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath v Toyota Verblitz; at Tokyo, 2.30pm
Heading into the third round of the JRLO 2024-2025 season, there are 4 teams in Division 1 who are yet to register a win, and most would not have guessed they would include Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath and Toyota Verblitz, or Yokohama Canon Eagles and Urayasu D-Rocks but its likely two of those sides will register a win as the 3rd round fixtures see them square up.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Dynaboars host Shizuoka Blue Revs and Wild Knights visit the Black Rams – both Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Shizuoka Blue Rev are undefeated.
Kwagga Smith captains the Shizuoka Blue Revs who will look to maintain their perfect start to the season and come off a huge 62-19 win last weekend. Last season’s leading try-scorer was Shizuoka Blue Revs Malo Tuitama who scored his first tries this season and opened his account for the new campaign with a hattrick in the win.
The hosts had a hammering themselves, with the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars on the losing end of a 61-8 scoreline last weekend.
Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo had a one-point win last weekend with the international talents of Isaac Lucas, TJ Perenara (Man of the Match) helping them to the win, while the Wild Knights only had a narrow two-point win to maintain their flawless start.
Yokohama Canon Eagles are on a six-match losing streak following the loss to Kobelco Kobe Steelers last weekend, and although some of the losses have been close, coach Keisuke Sawake knows they will need to turn around their fortunes when they travel to Urayasu D-Rocks. Both Springboks Faf de Klerk & Jesse Kriel will feature for the Yokohama Canon Eagles.
The home side’s new coach Greig Laidlaw is also looking for a first win at the helm. With star quality in the squad including Israel Folau, Samu Kerevi, and Jasper Wiese, he will be expecting more from his side but only Wiese has been selected to start on Saturday.
Sungoliath’s new Coach Kosei Ono will be feeling the pressure and his side also failed to win any of its last three matches in qualifying last season, so they are in a rut they need to break out of. The losses to Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights and Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo this season will be of concern for a historically competitive Japanese club. They do have Cheslin Kolbe back this weekend.
Their opponents on Saturday, Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz, last season won only two of their first eight matches and despite a strong end to the season with six wins from the last eight, they failed to qualify for the semifinals. Last season’s match between the two was only the second time Verblitz had beaten Sungoliath in the last 22 attempts!
Rugby League star Joseph Manu has been recalled by Hansen, in a side which includes Brave Blossom and club captain Himeno Kazuki and All Black centurion Aaron Smith.
Sunday 5 January 2025 – All times shown are Japan local time.
- Mie Honda Heat v Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay; at Suzuka, 12pm
- Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo v Kobelco Kobe Steelers at Tokyo, 1pm
Mie Honda Heat, captained by Argentine international Pablo Matera, are undefeated thus far and have already won one more match than they did all of last season! On Sunday, they host Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo-Bay who they last lost to 75-0 last season – it was Spears biggest ever win. Last weekend Kubota Spears nearly toppled the Wild Knights for a second win from the last 17 attempts but three yellow cards were costly in the end.
In the final game of Division 1, Brave Lupus host Kobelco Kobe Steelers as the defending champions look to add to the
19 wins in their past 21 matches. The last time the pair faced each other, it was an exciting 40-40 draw which was the highest-scoring draw recorded in Japan at the professional level.
Brief highlights of all JRLO matches will be available here.
Division 2 JRLO 2024-2025 – Round 3 Fixtures
Sunday 5 January 2025 – All times shown are Japan local time
- Hino Red Dolphins v Hanazono Kintetsu Liners; at Tokyo, 12pm
Both sides in the only Division 2 match this weekend are looking for their first wins of the season. The visitors, Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, have enough quality in the form of Quade Cooper and All Black Akira Ioane and will need to kickstart their season pronto if they have promotion aspirations.
Hino Red Dolphins are new to Division 2 having earned promotion last season and only losing one fixture in Division 3 to earn the step up, while Kintetsu dropped down to Division 2 this season.
Division 3 JRLO 2024-2025 – Round 3 Fixtures
Sunday 5 January 2025 – All times shown are Japan local time
- LeRIRO Fukuoka v Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions; at Fukuoka, 1pm
In the only Division 3 clash in round 3, both LeRIRO Fukuoka and Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions are looking for their first wins of the season.
The hosts, LeRIRO Fukuoka, are yet to win a League One match, and Chugoku Electric Power Red Regulions were hammered last week 61-26 by city rivals SkyActivs, in the first Hiroshima derby of the campaign – so LeRIRO Fukuoka could topple the visitors on Sunday.
How To Watch JRLO 2024-2025
This is what has been confirmed so far for streaming services of the JRLO 2024-2025 season:
- Japanese-based broadcasters are listed as showing select matches.
- One match per round will be shown on RugbyPass (FYI we have not been able to access this and have checked every weekend)
- Matches can be seen in Taiwan via ELTA TV with one match per round.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, ESPN Africa will show two games a week, both live and on-demand.
The full fixture list for this JRLO season can be seen here.
Japan Rugby League One News
- 2024-2025 JRLO Round 2 Preview.
- 2024-2025 JRLO Round 1 Preview.
- Fans Guide To The NTT Japan Rugby League One 2024-25 Season.
- Greig Laidlaw Discusses Plans For Urayasu D-Rocks As Head Coach.
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