2016–17 Top League

The 2016–17 Top League is the 14th season of Japan's domestic rugby union competition, the Top League. It kicked off on 26 August 2016 and the final round of league matches were played on 14 January 2017.[1]

2016–17 Top League
Captain Yutaka Nagare of Suntory, the 2016–17 winners.
Countries Japan
Date26 August 2016 – 14 January 2017
ChampionsSuntory Sungoliath
Runners-upYamaha Júbilo
RelegatedHonda Heat
Matches played120
Attendance584,640
(average 4,872 per match)
Top point scorerKosei Ono (187)
Top try scorerTakaaki Nakazuru (17)

Teams

The only change to the make-up of the league was the Challenge One winner Munakata Sanix Blues replacing NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes.[2]

Team Region Coach Captain
Canon Eagles Machida, Tokyo, Kantō Yoji Nagatomo Yusuke Niwai
Coca-Cola Red Sparks Fukuoka, Kyushu Akihiro Usui Kouta Yamashita
Honda Heat Suzuka, Mie Tomoaki Fujimoto Daisuke Konishi
Kintetsu Liners Higashiosaka, Osaka, Kansai Akira Tsuboi Daiki Toyota
Kobelco Steelers Kobe, Kansai Jim McKay Daiki Hashimoto
Kubota Spears Abiko, Chiba, Kantō Frans Ludeke Harumichi Tatekawa
Munakata Sanix Blues Munakata, Fukuoka, Kyushu Yuichiro Fujii Eito Tamura
NEC Green Rockets Abiko, Chiba, Kantō Peter Russell Sunao Takizawa
NTT Com Shining Arcs Chiba, Chiba, Kantō Rob Penney Daisuke Kurihara
Panasonic Wild Knights Ota, Gunma, Kantō Robbie Deans Shota Horie
Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo, Kantō Damien Hill Takeshi Mabuchi
Suntory Sungoliath Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō Keisuke Sawaki Yutaka Nagare
Toshiba Brave Lupus Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō Teppei Tomioka Michael Leitch
Toyota Industries Shuttles Aichi, Mizuho Masaya Niu Yuga Takada
Toyota Verblitz Toyota, Aichi, Tokai Hiroshi Sugawara Taiyo Ando
Yamaha Júbilo Iwata, Shizuoka, Tokai Takanobu Horikawa Takeshi Hino

Competition

The regular season saw all 16 teams competing in a round-robin style tournament where they played each team in the league once.[3]

Unlike previous seasons, there were no title-play-offs, and the team on top of the league after the round-robin stages was crowned the champion. The top three teams progressed to the 54th All Japan Rugby Football Championship.

Standings

Top League - League Stage
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points For Points Against Points Difference Try Bonus Losing Bonus Points
1Suntory Sungoliath151500563184+37911071
2Yamaha Júbilo151401580208+37211067
3Panasonic Wild Knights151302579268+3119162
4Kobelco Steelers151005473328+1457148
5NTT Com Shining Arcs15906336292+444141
6Ricoh Black Rams15807390362+284440
7Canon Eagles15807379336+432337
8Toyota Verblitz15708353332+214436
9Toshiba Brave Lupus15609351381−304634
10NEC Green Rockets15618337401−643231
11Munakata Sanix Blues15708280481−2010129
12Kubota Spears15618271387−1161128
13Kintetsu Liners153012268417−1490618
14Coca-Cola Red Sparks153012239478−2392317
15Toyota Industries Shuttles153012292539−2471316
16Honda Heat151014274571−297037
Updated: 15 January 2017
Source: itsrugby.co.uk at the Wayback Machine (archived 4 March 2017)

  Teams 1 to 3 (Green background) advance to the 54th All Japan Rugby Football Championship.
  Teams 13 to 15 (Blue background) go on to the 2016–17 Top League relegation play-offs.
  Team 16 (Red background) will be automatically relegated to the 2017 Top Challenge League.

Four points for a win, two for a draw, one bonus point for four tries or more (BP1) and one bonus point for losing by seven or less (BP2).
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  Difference between points for and against
  Total number of points for
  Number of matches won
  Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
  Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled

    • Honda Heat were relegated to the new second-tier Top Challenge League.

    Matches

    The following matches were played during the 2016–17 Top League competition:[4]

    Round 1










    Round 2









    Round 3










    Round 4









    Round 5










    Round 6










    Round 7










    Round 8










    Round 9










    Round 10










    Round 11










    Round 12










    Round 13










    Round 14










    Round 15










    Top League Challenge Series

    Hino Red Dolphins, Kyuden Voltex and Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars progressed to the promotion play-offs.

    Promotion/relegation play-offs

    At the end of the season, there were three promotion/relegation play-offs for three places in the 2017–18 Top League. The teams ranked 13th, 14th and 15th in the Top League played off against the teams ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Top League Challenge 1.

    Coca-Cola Red Sparks, Kintetsu Liners and Toyota Industries Shuttles qualified from the Top League relegation play-off zone, while Hino Red Dolphins, Kyuden Voltex and Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars qualified from Challenge 1.

    The following matches were played in the series:




    References

    1. "Top League Schedule 2016" (in Japanese). Retrieved 22 September 2016.
    2. "Rugby: Sanix top Docomo to earn promotion to Top League". 30 January 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
    3. "Its Rugby Japan". Retrieved 22 September 2016.
    4. "Fixtures & Results". Top League. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.