The Top League championship may well have been decided on the last weekend of 2004 -- Toshiba Brave Lupus 38-12 victory over archrival Suntory Sungoliath on Saturday simply being the icing on the cake -- but there was still plenty to play for in the four games played on Monday.
At stake for teams at the top end of the table were spots in the Microsoft Cup and the All Japan Championship, while those at the wrong end were looking to avoid the one remaining automatic relegation spot and the two promotion/relegation playoff games for teams finishing ninth and 10th.
In the end it was the Kintetsu Liners who joined IBM Big Blue back in the regional leagues as they lost 35-27 to World Fighting Bull in the loser-gets-the-drop game at Osaka's Hanazono Stadium.
World will be joined in the playoffs by the Ricoh Black Rams, who lost 57-17 to the third-place NEC Green Rockets at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Stadium, though the Fighting Bull (ninth) now has the easier game taking on the top second-placed team from the regional competitions -- either Mitsubishi Juko, Honda or Coca Cola West Japan.
Ricoh, meanwhile, will have to play the loser of the playoffs featuring the top-placed regional teams (Secom, Toyota Shoki and Sanix) -- the top two earning automatic promotion to Japan rugby's top-flight competition.
"Our destiny is in our own hands," said Ricoh head coach Brian Smith before the game and his team got off to the best possible start when, just six minutes into the game, Ryo Kanazawa exploited a huge hole on the blindside of a ruck 5 meters out to cross for the game's opening try.
However, the Green Rockets slowly played themselves into the game and with Jaco van der Westhuyzen directing operations, Koichiro Kubota grabbed a first-half hat trick of tries as NEC went into the break 21-5 up.
Thirty seconds into the second half, Kubota added a fourth in a carbon copy of his third as he followed up an inch-perfect kick from his South African flyhalf.
Glen Osborne, who had a storming game in a losing cause, reduced the deficit in the 44th minute when he used his footwork to bisect two NEC defenders to score the first of his two tries, but there was no stopping Kubota and the winger crossed for his fifth try -- a Top League record -- in the 51st minute following good work by the NEC pack.
Further tries from Yoshinori Ishida, Kyohei Fujito, Ryota Asano and Glen Marsh simply rubbed salt into Ricoh's wounds.
"There's a big gap between the clubs with full-time rugby programs and clubs like us that train two evenings and one afternoon a week," said Smith.
"We have improved this year but there is still obviously a long way to go."
Saturday's other game had confirmed Grant Batty's Yamaha Jubilo as the runnerup in the league following a 31-24 victory over last season's champion the Kobe Kobelco Steelers, who finished fifth this year.
Toyota Verblitz finished fourth after beating the Kubota Spears 31-14 in Monday's first game at Chichibunomiya and must now either win the Microsoft Cup or hope that Toshiba completes the double if it is to make the season-ending All Japan Championship.
Meanwhile in Kumagaya, the Sanyo Wild Knights' 50-19 victory over the already doomed IBM saw them jump to seventh in the league, with Suntory taking the eighth and last place in the Microsoft Cup.
The league may be over but there is still plenty to play for, a fact not lost on NEC captain Takuro Miuchi.
"We may be the holders of the Microsoft Cup, but we want to approach the tournament as challengers. We lost to Yamaha and Toshiba in the league and want to beat them and win the Cup again," the Oxford Blue said after the game.
The first round of the Microsoft Cup takes place on Jan. 23 at Chichibunomiya and Hanazono.