Top League rugby

With new teams and a revamped format, Japanese rugby looks to bust loose

Toshiba flanker Tomoaki Nakai prepares to offload the ball against NEC ©2006 JRFU. Photo By Y. Hiramoto

The fourth edition of Japan’s premier rugby competition—the Top League—gets underway on September 1 when defending champions Toshiba Brave Lupus take on NEC Green Rockets at Tokyo’s National Stadium. The game features two teams that shared last season’s All Japan Championship, and it’s the first of 94 match-ups that will decide the 2007 Top League champion. With software giant Microsoft renewing its commitment to the sport here, the Japan Rugby Football Union has decided to expand the league and adjust its format so that it’s now an exact replica of the Southern Hemisphere’s Super 14.

The first three years of professional rugby in Japan had the Top League and the Microsoft Cup as two separate competitions, with the top eight teams in the league gunning for the Cup. The new format means there will be just one piece of silverware, and the top four teams in the league will play for the Cup and the right to be called Top League champion.

With the dawning of this new era, it’s perhaps fitting that the season opener features the teams that have dominated Japanese professional rugby. Toshiba was All-Japan champion in 2004, won the Top League and Microsoft Cup in 2005, and almost managed a clean sweep of all three trophies in 2006: having won the League and Cup double, Brave Lupus drew 6-6 with the Green Rockets in the final of the All-Japan Championship and had to settle for a share of the silverware. NEC, for its part, was Microsoft Cup champ in 2004 and All-Japan champion in 2005. The Kobe Kobelco Steelers were the only other team to collect any trophies, winning the inaugural Top League championship in 2004.

Now that the league is expanding to 14 teams and has games scheduled at grounds from Nagasaki to Hokkaido, it would seem that rugby in Japan is in a healthy state. But such a view would not go down well with Japan coach Jean-Pierre Elissalde. Time and again the Frenchman has complained that Japan is doing so badly on the international front because the game played in the Top League has no resemblance to that played at the highest level overseas.

And he has a point, to some degree. The last few years have seen a distinct gap emerge between the haves and have-nots in Japan’s domestic league, and the presence of two additional teams could mean even more mismatches. Yet at the top end of the table, the level of rugby is far higher than was the case in the old corporate competition. Toshiba and NEC have played some real humdingers in the last couple of years, while the Sanyo Wild Knights and Toyota Verblitz have also on occasion produced some sublime rugby.

These four teams will be in contention again his year, but the word from the paddock is, look out for Suntory Sungoliath. Having worked his magic at Waseda University, coach Katsuyuki Kiyomiya leads a squad that, despite reaching last year’s Microsoft Cup final, has had a barren time of it after dominating Japanese rugby either side of the millennium. Kiyomiya has brought with him a number of top university players, and the feeling among many followers of the game is that the Malts may be flowing at the end of the season.

There is still a lot that needs to be worked on regarding the organization and marketing of the Top League, but with the South African presence increasing and Australia’s Stephen Larkham rumored to be on his way next year, the outlook is bright.

National Stadium, September 1. See sports listings for details.

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