Toshiba Brave Lupus

Toshiba Brave Lupus
東芝ブレイブルーパス
Full name Toshiba Brave Lupus
Union Japan Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s) Brave Lupus
Founded 1948
Location Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan
Ground(s) Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, 27,188 capacity
Coach(es) Teppei Tomioka, Joe Barakat
Team kit
2nd kit

Toshiba Brave Lupus (Lupus is wolf in Latin) is a Japanese rugby union team in the Top League. They are based in Fuchu, Tokyo, as is their local rival Suntory Sungoliath. They won the second ever Top League championship in the 2004-5 season and the Microsoft Cup in 2005 under their innovative and inventive coach Masahiro Kunda, himself a former hooker for Toshiba and Japan. They are particularly known for the strength of their mauls. Before the Top League was created the team was called Toshiba Fuchu, after their location. Their slogan for 2006 season is "Once again to the Pinnacle (Restart)".

On 14 March 2008, Bristol Rugby player David Hill announced he'd leave the English club for Toshiba at the end of the season.

Honours

2014–15 Squad

The Toshiba Brave Lupus squad for 2014-15 Top League season:[1]

Props

  • Japan Takuma Asahara
  • United States Daisuke Estrella
  • Japan Hikaru Ishizawa
  • Japan Tomohiro Kubo
  • Japan Masataka Mikami
  • Japan Keiichi Tanaka
  • Japan Takuro Yoneya

Hookers

Locks

  • Japan Shunsuke Amemiya
  • Japan Keisuke Matsuda
  • Japan Eiri Nakada
  • Japan Hitoshi Ono
 

Loose Forwards

Scrum-halves

Fly-halves

  • Japan Yoshikazu Morita
  • South Africa Francois Steyn
  • Japan Ryohei Yoshida
 

Centres

  • New Zealand Richard Kahui
  • Japan Keisuke Masuda
  • Japan Taiki Matsunobu
  • Japan Tomohiro Senba
  • Japan Goshi Tachikawa
  • Japan Taiki Watanabe

Wingers

  • Japan Toshiaki Hirose
  • Japan Tatsunori Kayano
  • Fiji Epeli Nakolinivalu
  • Japan Daisuke Natsui
  • Japan Shuhei Oshima
  • Japan Shohei Toyoshima

Fullbacks

  • Japan Shin Ito
  • Japan Takehisa Usuzuki
  • Japan Hiroki Yoshida

(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Past players

References

  1. "Toshiba Brave Lupus: The Team" (in Japanese). Top League. Retrieved 3 September 2014.

External links