Japan Rugby League

[Samurais95]

I wanted to start a thread about Japanese Rugby League. I want to keep people up to date with the Japan National team and domestic matches. 

I have added a video from a Interanational friendly between Japan and Thailand from February 2024. The game was played in Sydney and Japan's team was made up of roughly half Australia based players and half Japan based players. This was Japan's first match sice October 2022 against El Salvador.

 

 

[langpark]

I would be very interested to hear any updates regarding the game in Japan.  As for the matches in Sydney, I'll pass.  There are over a dozen "countries" doing the Sydney thing, some of which have no real desire to actually establish anything in the homeland.  I hope Japan is not in that category.

[Samurais95]

The score of the game was Japan 0-46 Thailand by the way.

Sadly it seems domestic rugby league in Japan is on a bit of a decline at the moment. In 2023, there were 4 active teams in Japan. 2 based in Tokyo (Tokyo Warriors and Black Bunnies) and 2 in Osaka (Kansai Kaminari and Kamisenryu). In 2024, it looks like the Osaka teams are not participating, so it's down to just 2 teams.

With that being said, I think Japan Rugby League is hoping to host a match in Tokyo in October 2024. I don't know who the opponent would be. 

[DlEHARD]

I'd love to see Japanese Rugby League thrive. I like their aussie team the Moonbears.

[Samurais95]

First domestic match of 2024 was played in Tokyo 3 weeks ago (I'm a bit late again), Black Bunnies beat Tokyo 13 Warriors 58-16. This youtube channel usually uploads full match videos, not short versions and the youtube channel is a little hard to find.

 

[Samurais95]

Second domestic match of 2024, Black Bunnies beat Tokyo Warriors 60-22. 

https://youtu.be/kG2GWlZsDZU?feature=shared

[Samurais95]

https://m.facebook.com/rugbyleaguesamurais/

On Japan RL social media, they announced a match on October 13th against Hong Kong in Hiroo Town, Hokkaido (Japan). It will be Japan's first home match and Hong Kong's first match since 2018 I believe. 

Unfortunately, I think Hong Kong are unranked, so it will be another fixture that doesn't count towards Japan's world ranking. However, it's good to see more activity in Japan.

[welshmagpie]

Hokkaido is an incredible place, I hope plenty of locals get out to see it.