Watch Japan’s Top League highlights

Japan’s Top League kicked off at the weekend and some mammoth names in our sport are out in Japan plying their trade at the moment. All Blacks, Wallabies, Springboks and some of Europe’s stars are rubbing shoulders with the finest in Japanese rugby and thankfully, you can keep track of all the big moments on the official Top League YouTube channel.

It’s a handy tool if you want to keep track of Greig Laidlaw at the Shining Arcs, or Brodie Retallick and Ben Smith at the Kobelco Steelers. There’s Alex Goode at the Green Rockets, and Beauden Barrett, Samu Kerevi at Suntory Sungoliath, or keep up with Kieran Read and Michael Hooper at Toyota. For all of it, these clips are invaluable.

There were big names galore in the first round of the new competition.

The big-scoring match-up of the weekend saw Suntory Sungoliath take apart Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars and you can see the highlights of that above.

Elsewhere, Panasonic Wild Knights took on the Ricoh Black Rams. Look out for Hadleigh Parkes…

Read and Hooper’s Toyota Verblitz faced Michael Leitch’s Toshiba Brave Lupus, here.

Yamaha Jubilo took apart Hino Red Dolphins.

You can catch a glimpse of the ever-scrappy TJ Perenara in the Cannon Eagles v NTT Docomo RedHurricanes clash.

What about Kubota Spears versus Munakata Sanix Blues? There’s plenty of Malcolm Marx in here.

There’s Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers, with the very best and worst of Brodie Ratallick, against the NEC Greek Rockets.

And of course some Greig Laidlaw action as the NTT Communications Shining Arcs took on Honda Heat.

So as you can see, plenty of coverage there.

Keep track of your favourite stars and hopefully you will see some wide-open attacking action.

Feel free to let us know your thoughts about the league and its stars via social media or in an email to rugbyworldletters@futurenet.com with a bit more depth.

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