Suntory Sungoliath maintained their unbeaten run in the Top League on Saturday with a 37-24 victory over Toyota Verblitz.

The win at Toyota Stadium in Aichi Prefecture sees Suntory go first in the standings with 56 points from 12 games, though the Yamaha Jubilo (53 points) will regain the top spot Sunday if they beat the Kobe Kobelco Steelers.

The two top sides face each other on Christmas Eve in a game likely to determine which team wins the league.

In the battle of the two basement sides, the Toyota Industries Shuttles beat the Honda Heat 49-24 with former Springbok Ryan Kankowski among the try scorers for the Shuttles.

The result — combined with the Kubota Spears' 36-17 defeat of the Coca-Cola Red Sparks — sees the Shuttles jump to 13th in the rankings with 15 points.

The Kintetsu Liners, who play the Toshiba Brave Lupus on Sunday, are 14th with 14 points, Cola is 15th with 12, while Honda is last with 6.

The side finishing bottom come Jan. 14 is automatically relegated while the teams finishing 13th to 15th face promotion/relegation games against the fourth, third and second best teams, respectively, from the regional leagues.

At Toyota Stadium, Suntory withstood some early pressure from Toyota before taking control of the game midway through the first half on the back of a brace of tries from Shota Emi.

Ruan Smith crossed for Toyota to give the hosts an early 7-3 lead. But Emi's brace, both of which highlighted Suntory's 15-man approach to the game, and a five-pointer from Yusuke Aoki saw Suntory go into the break leading 22-10.

Toyota made much more of a game of it in the second half with Robbie Robinson and Yoshikatsu Hikosaka going over either side of a try by Ryoto Nakamura.

But an intercept seven minutes from time by Kosei Ono — that saw him finish the day with 17 points courtesy of a try, three conversions and two penalty goals — sealed the win for the visitors.

It was a bittersweet victory, though.

Replacement prop Genki Sudo's decision to kick the ball into touch following a turnover after the fulltime hooter meant Suntory was unable to leave Toyota city with a bonus point for scoring three more tries than its opponent.

It could be crucial come Jan. 14.