Teikyo University won their ninth straight collegiate rugby championship Sunday as they came from behind to beat Meiji University 21-20 in front of 20,489 at a packed and very vocal Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

Teikyo's superior fitness and self-belief eventually saw them home with Daichi Akiyama and Yuki Okada scoring second-half tries to seal the win and prevent Meiji from adding to their 12 titles, the last of which came in 1997.

"Meiji played really well. That was a great game and a great advertisement for university rugby," Teikyo coach Masayuki Iwade said immediately after the game. "I feel relieved and have a lot of respect for the players of both teams."

Inspired by Yusuke Kajimura, who trained with the Brave Blossoms back in 2013 when he was still at Hotoku Gakuen High School, Meiji were left to rue three missed kicks from Kohei Horigome that eventually proved to be the difference between the two teams.

"Our focus was on set play, defense and the breakdown," said Meiji captain Mitsuru Furukawa. "We did well at the breakdown but made a few mistakes in the set."

Meiji got off to the perfect start with Kajimura intercepting a wayward pass and racing 60 meters for the opening try.

Teikyo responded immediately, despite having Tomoya Kimura sent to the sin bin, with Japan international Kosuke Horikoshi diving over following a good run by Nick McCurran.

Meiji hit back, however, with Taichi Takahashi scoring a cracking try following a long pass from Kajimura in the 16th minute and scrumhalf Kenta Fukuda diving over 10 minutes later after his forwards had done the hard work.

With the Meiji defense holding firm against the big Teikyo forwards, Iwade's team resorted to a kick-and-chase game but that too failed to make an impact and his squad went into the changing trailing 17-7.

Teikyo came out for the second half, having never turned around behind on the scoreboard in their previous eight finals.

But they showed just why they have dominated university rugby for the past nine years as they responded to an early penalty by Horigome with Akiyama and Okada touching down and Koki Takeyama adding what proved to be the all-important conversions.