Seven teams confirmed their places in the playoffs to determine the Japan Rugby Top League champions Saturday as the pool stage reached its penultimate round.

Yamaha Jubilo, Panasonic Wild Knights, Ricoh Black Rams and Kubota Spears will all progress from the White Conference, while Kobe Kobelco Steelers, Toyota Verblitz and Suntory Sungoliath made sure they cannot finish outside the top four in the Red Conference.

(Dan Carter, red, of Kobe Kobelco Steelers)

This season, the league's 16 teams have been split into two Conferences -- Red and White. Following seven rounds of pool games the top four sides from each group will play for the league title.

The bottom eight sides will fight it out to determine which four will enter relegation/promotion playoffs with the top four teams from the second-division Top Challenge League.

"There's a bit of relief," Toyota coach Jake White said of reaching the playoffs ahead of next week's pool finale when all of the sides will be missing their Japan internationals as they prepare for the autumn test matches.

"There's no noose hanging over us and it does give us a chance to try a few things, even though we are very conscious it is a big derby game (against Toyota Industries Shuttles)."

Yamaha booked their spot by beating Canon Eagles 52-17 to make it 24 points for the season. They head the White group by two points from Panasonic, who advance despite incurring their first defeat of the season, and their first-ever Top League loss in their hometown of Ota, Gunma Prefecture, having won their previous 28 games there.

A 72nd-minute try by Colin Bourke sealed a 26-17 win for Ricoh over Robbie Deans' side and leaves the Black Rams in third place with 19 points.

(Dan Carter)

Kubota's 26-24 defeat of Toshiba ensured they have 18 points and that they will finish at least fourth, leaving the Brave Lupus, the Eagles, Honda Heat and Coca-Cola Red Sparks to battle it out in the playoffs for ninth to 16th place.

Honda beat Coca-Cola 52-31 on Saturday to leave the Red Sparks without a point to their name after six games.

Kobe Steel, now the only unbeaten side in the league, top the Red group with 25 points following their 66-37 win over the Shuttles in which Atsushi Hiwasa scored a hat-trick of tries and Dan Carter kicked sevens conversions from as many attempts.

Verblitz (22 points) are second after they beat NTT Communications Shining Arcs 38-36, while Suntory are a further point back in third place thanks to a 40-18 victory over bottom side Munakata Sanix Blues who, like their Kyushu neighbor, Cola, have yet to record a single point in the campaign.

NEC Green Rockets -- who beat Hino 38-12 to eliminate the Red Dolphins from a possible top-four finish -- NTT Comms and the Shuttles all go into the final weekend of pool matches with a chance of advancing to the championship playoffs.

"We are getting a little bit better but are still having too many soft moments," said NTT coach Rob Penney, whose side has now lost four games by seven points or less.

"Once we get some good results, the confidence will come and we will be a hard team to beat," added the New Zealander, whose team is favored to take the final championship playoff spot given they play Sanix next week.

(Colin Bourke of Ricoh Black Rams scores a try)

At Tokyo's Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, Verblitz bounced back from an early deficit to pick up their fourth win of the season.

But they were made to work all the way as NTT started and finished the stronger of the two teams.

Shingo Nakashima bagged a brace and Ryutaro Ueda also crossed the chalk as the Shining Arcs jumped out to a 22-12 lead.

A second try from Yuki Okada, however, and one from Yoshikatsu Hikosaka -- to go with earlier efforts from Steven Yates and Okada -- saw Verblitz lead 26-22 at the break.

Okada completed his hat-trick in the 51st minute and Jamie Henry also touched down before Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco and Atsushi Yumoto closed the gap and set up a grandstand finish.

Verblitz's defense held firm though, much to the relief of White.

"It was like a boxing match out there," he said. "We punched, they punched back. I thought we had knocked them out when we got to 38-22 ahead but then we got a yellow card and they came right back."

(Steven Yates of Toyota Verblitz scores a try)