The match is the first of 209 in Division One’s regular 21week season, with the final to be played in Tokyo on Sunday June 1, 2025.
The promotion/relegation ‘Replacement Battle’ series between Divisions One and Two has been downsized and will involve just four teams playing home and away, as opposed to the previous six-team format.
Toshiba Brave Lupus became the third champions of the first three seasons of League One after edging the inaugural winners, Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights, 24-20. With All Black fly-half Richie Mo’unga and ex-Test team-mate and back rower Shannon Frizell leading the charge, Brave Lupus will be hard to beat. So too will the side they beat last time, with the Wild Knights having featured in all three of the league’s finals, beating Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath first up, before narrow losses to Kubota Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay and Brave Lupus.
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