TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Jone Naikabula dotted down twice, and Richie Mo'unga was also among the try scorers for Brave Lupus Tokyo as they held off Tokyo Sungoliath 43-33 in a high-tempo Japan Rugby League One battle on Saturday.

Defending champions Brave Lupus remained second in the standings with their victory in the "Fuchu Derby," named for the western Tokyo city where the rival clubs are headquartered, while seventh-place Sungoliath drifted further from a playoff berth.

Out of action since the opening round, flanker Sam Cane returned to the Sungoliath lineup in time to take on former All Blacks teammates Mo'unga and Shannon Frizell at Tokyo's Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

Todd Blackadder's men scored the opening try through Yoshitaka Tokunaga in the eighth minute despite an early trip to the sin bin for their front-rower Sena Kimura.

Sungoliath had their only lead of the match at 8-5 after Ryuga Hashimoto's 10th-minute try, which was quickly followed by Naikabula's first five-pointer on a dash down the right off a pass from captain Michael Leitch.

The Fijian-born Japan winger notched his brace nine minutes later for a 19-8 lead with the extras, storming home from halfway to finish a sequence that began with a Brave Lupus scrum near their own 22.

Sungoliath cut the deficit to 19-18 late in the first half and 31-30 in the second period but were unable to regain the upper hand in the fast and physical contest.

"You can see from the preparation today we were really focused on this game," said Blackadder, whose side drew 28-28 with the league-leading Saitama Wild Knights the previous round.

"We played well last week, but we really wanted to lift up and take ourselves to a new level. And we saw that today. The players who came in were really confident and knew it was going to be a tough, tough game."

In other results, the Kubota Spears overcame the Kobe Steelers 25-20, the Shizuoka Blue Revs beat Toyota Verblitz 33-23 and Black Rams Tokyo were 44-22 winners against the Urayasu D-Rocks. Jone Naikabula dotted down twice, and Richie Mo'unga was also among the try scorers for Brave Lupus Tokyo as they held off Tokyo Sungoliath 43-33 in a high-tempo Japan Rugby League One battle on Saturday.

Defending champions Brave Lupus remained second in the standings with their victory in the "Fuchu Derby," named for the western Tokyo city where the rival clubs are headquartered, while seventh-place Sungoliath drifted further from a playoff berth.

Out of action since the opening round, flanker Sam Cane returned to the Sungoliath lineup in time to take on former All Blacks teammates Mo'unga and Shannon Frizell at Tokyo's Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

Todd Blackadder's men scored the opening try through Yoshitaka Tokunaga in the eighth minute despite an early trip to the sin bin for their front-rower Sena Kimura.

Sungoliath had their only lead of the match at 8-5 after Ryuga Hashimoto's 10th-minute try, which was quickly followed by Naikabula's first five-pointer on a dash down the right off a pass from captain Michael Leitch.

The Fijian-born Japan winger notched his brace nine minutes later for a 19-8 lead with the extras, storming home from halfway to finish a sequence that began with a Brave Lupus scrum near their own 22.

Sungoliath cut the deficit to 19-18 late in the first half and 31-30 in the second period but were unable to regain the upper hand in the fast and physical contest.

"You can see from the preparation today we were really focused on this game," said Blackadder, whose side drew 28-28 with the league-leading Saitama Wild Knights the previous round.

"We played well last week, but we really wanted to lift up and take ourselves to a new level. And we saw that today. The players who came in were really confident and knew it was going to be a tough, tough game."

In other results, the Kubota Spears overcame the Kobe Steelers 25-20, the Shizuoka Blue Revs beat Toyota Verblitz 33-23 and Black Rams Tokyo were 44-22 winners against the Urayasu D-Rocks.