Saitama Wild Knights ended the regular season with a perfect 16-win record in Japan Rugby League One on Saturday after easing past the playoff-bound Yokohama Eagles 43-14.
The result consigned the Eagles to fourth-place, and sets up a May 18 rematch, when the two teams face each other in the semifinals for the second straight year. Second-placed Brave Lupus Tokyo will play Tokyo Sungoliath in the May 19 semifinal.
South Africa center Jesse Kriel scored one of the Eagles' two tries that saw them trim the deficit to 17-14 after half an hour at Resonac Dome Oita, but two converted tries by Japan center Dylan Riley sent the Wild Knights into the break leading 31-14.
Wing Koki Takeyama scored seven minutes into the second half, and hooker Yuji Shimogama two minutes from time as the Wild Knights shut out the Eagles the rest of the way, with Japan flyhalf Rikiya Matsuda kicking 13 points in a comfortable bonus-point win that took them to 75 points, 15 ahead of Brave Lupus, who play Sunday.
Elsewhere, Sungoliath center Taiga Ozaki scored a hat-trick of tries in a 45-26 loss to last season's champions, Kubota Spears.
Kobe Steelers will finish fifth after scraping past promotion-relegation playoff-bound Mie Heat 33-31.
Related coverage:
Rugby: Brave Lupus defeat Sungoliath in possible playoff preview
Rugby: Head coach Jones lauds Tanaka's role in changing Japan's game
Rugby: 3-time World Cup scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka to retire at season-end
