2012–13 Top League

2012–13 Top League

Winners Suntory were also 50th All Japan champions.
Countries Japan Japan
Date 31 August 2012 – 27 January 2013
Champions Suntory Sungoliath (3rd title)
Runners-up Toshiba Brave Lupus
Top point scorer Japan Ayumu Goromaru (149 pts)
 Yamaha Júbilo
Top try scorer Japan Akihito Yamada (18 tries)
 Panasonic Wild Knights

The 2012–13 Top League was the 10th season of Japan's domestic rugby union competition, the Top League. It kicked off on 31 August 2012. The final was held on 27 January 2013 and won by Suntory Sungoliath to claim their third Top League title.

Teams

Team Region Coach Captain
Canon Eagles Machida, Tokyo, Kantō Japan Yoji Nagatomo Japan Taku Wada
Fukuoka Sanix Blues Munakata, Fukuoka, Kyūshū Japan Yuichiro Fujii Japan Yasutake Nagashita
Kintetsu Liners Higashiosaka, Osaka, Kansai Japan Ryusuke Maeda Japan Tadanobu Ko
Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers Kobe, Kansai Japan Seiji Hirao Japan Daiki Hashimoto
Kyuden Voltex Fukuoka, Kyūshū Japan Koji Hirata Japan Makoto Matsumoto
NEC Green Rockets Abiko, Chiba, Kantō New Zealand Greg Cooper Japan Ryota Asano
NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes Osaka, Kansai Japan Kazunari Takano Japan Takeshi Hirase
NTT Shining Arcs Chiba, Chiba, Kantō Japan Masato Hayashi Japan Hiraku Tomoigawa
Panasonic Wild Knights Ota, Gunma, Kantō Japan Norifumi Nakajima Japan Seiichi Shimomura
Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo, Kantō New Zealand Leon Holden Japan Daisuke Komatsu
Suntory Sungoliath Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō Japan Naoya Okubo Japan Shinya Makabe
Toshiba Brave Lupus Fuchū, Tokyo, Kantō Japan Kenichi Wada Japan Masato Toyoda
Toyota Verblitz Toyota, Aichi, Tokai Japan Keiji Hirose Japan Ryuta Ueno
Yamaha Júbilo Iwata, Shizuoka, Tokai Japan Katsuyuki Kiyomiya Japan Yuta Kasahara

Regular season

The 14 teams played a round-robin tournament for the 2012–13 Top League regular season.

The top 4 qualified for the title play-offs to fight for the Microsoft Cup and the Top League title. The top 4 also qualified directly into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

Teams ranked 5th to 10th went through to the wildcard play-offs for qualification into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship. Teams ranked 13th and 14th went to the promotion and relegation play-offs against regional challengers to fight to remain in the Top League.

Table

Top League Table
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points For Points Against Points Difference Try Bonus Losing Bonus Points
1 Suntory Sungoliath 13 13 0 0 481 258 +223 11 0 63
2 Toshiba Brave Lupus 13 10 0 3 478 266 +212 8 2 50
3 Panasonic Wild Knights 13 10 0 3 509 275 +234 8 1 49
4 Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers 13 9 1 3 468 255 +213 9 2 49
5 Toyota Verblitz 13 9 1 3 343 291 +52 4 1 43
6 Yamaha Júbilo 13 8 0 5 430 311 +119 7 3 42
7 Kintetsu Liners 13 6 0 7 356 308 +48 6 3 33
8 NEC Green Rockets 13 6 0 7 399 375 +24 7 1 32
9 NTT Shining Arcs 13 7 0 6 240 313 –73 1 2 31
10 Ricoh Black Rams 13 5 0 8 322 360 –38 5 3 28
11 Canon Eagles 13 3 0 10 287 382 –95 5 2 19
12 Kyuden Voltex 13 2 0 11 238 593 –355 5 3 16
13 NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes 13 1 0 12 217 524 –307 2 2 8
14 Fukuoka Sanix Blues 13 1 0 12 256 513 –257 2 1 7

 • The top 4 teams qualified to the title play-offs.
 • The top 4 teams also qualified for entry into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.
 • Teams 5 to 10 qualified to the wildcard play-offs for entry into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.
 • Teams 11 and 12 remain in the Top League for 2013–14.
 • Teams 13 and 14 went through to the promotion and relegation play-offs against regional challengers.

Source:The Rugby Archive[1] Updated: 6 Jan 2013

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

    Fixtures and results

    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

    Title play-offs

    Top 4 sides of the regular season competed in the Microsoft Cup (2013) knock out tournament to fight for the Top League title. The top 4 teams of 2012–13 were Suntory Sungoliath, Toshiba Brave Lupus, Panasonic Wild Knights, and Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers.

    Semi-finals

    19 January 2013
    Suntory Sungoliath 38 – 19 Kobelco Steelers
    Try: Hatakeyama 49'
    Pisi (2) 57', 78'
    Murata 60'
    Con: Nicholas (3) 49', 57', 78'
    Pen: Nicholas (3) 12', 25', 39'
    Drop: Pisi 70'
    		 Try: Yasui 18'
    Maekawa 27'
    Ohashi 32'
    Con: Morita (2) 18', 27'

    20 January 2013
    Panasonic Wild Knights 8 - 20 Toshiba Brave Lupus
    Try: Sasakura 51'
    Pen: Delany 24'
    		 Try: T Yoshida 69'
    Shin Ito 79'
    Con: Hill 69'
    R Yoshida 79'
    Pen: Hill 14, 55'

    Final

    27 January 2013
    14:00
    Suntory Sungoliath 19 – 3 Toshiba Brave Lupus
    Try: Murata (2) 8', 34'
    Pisi 75'
    Con: Nicholas (2) 34', 75'
    		 Pen: Hill 18'
    Prince Chichibu, Tokyo
    Attendance: 13,858
    Referee: Japan Taizo Hirabayashi
    FB 15Japan Go Aruga  76'
    RW 14Japan Daichi Murata 42' to 52'
    OC 13Japan Koji Taira
    IC 12Japan Ryan Nicholas
    LW 11Japan Hirotoki Onozawa
    FH 10Japan Kosei Ono  72'
    SH 9 South Africa Fourie du Preez 61' to 71'  72'
    N8 8 Japan Masakatsu Nishikawa  76'
    OF 7 Japan Takamichi Sasaki  52'
    BF 6 Australia George Smith
    RL 5 Japan Shinya Makabe (c)
    LL 4 Japan Koji Shinozuka
    TP 3 Japan Kensuke Hatakeyama  31'
    HK 2 Japan Yusuke Aoki  54'
    LP 1 Japan Akira Ozaki  76'
    Replacements:
    PR 16Japan Tateo Kanai  76'
    PR 17Japan Yosuke Ikegaya  31'
    LK 18
    FL 19China Shinji Gen  76'
    SH 20Japan Atsushi Hiwasa  72'
    FH 21Samoa Tusi Pisi  72'
    FB 22Japan Hiroki Miyamoto  76'
    Coach: Japan Naoya Okubo
    FB 15Japan Gochi Tachikawa  76'
    RW 14Japan Toshiaki Hirose
    OC 13Japan Hiroki Yoshida
    IC 12Japan Tomohiro Senba
    LW 11Japan Shin Ito
    FH 10New Zealand David Hill  40'
    SH 9 Japan Jun Fujii  47'
    N8 8 Japan Masato Toyoda (c)
    OF 7 Japan Tomoaki Nakai
    BF 6 New Zealand Steven Bates  53'
    RL 5 Japan Hitoshi Ono
    LL 4 Japan Yota Mochizuki  72'
    TP 3 Japan Takuma Asahara
    HK 2 Japan Hiroki Yuhara  72'
    LP 1 Japan Tomohiro Kubo  58'
    Replacements:
    HK 16Japan Taku Inokuchi  72'
    PR 17Japan Masataka Mikami  58'
    LK 18Japan Kyosuke Kajikawa  72'
    FL 19Japan Michael Leitch  53'
    SH 20Japan Tomoki Yoshida  47'
    CE 21New Zealand Neil Brew  40'
    WG 22Japan Takehisa Usuzuki  76'
    Coach: Japan Kenichi Wada

    Wildcard play-offs

    The two second round winners qualified for the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

    First round

    The Top League teams ranked 7th and 10th played-off for the right to meet the Top League team ranked 5th in the second round. The Top League teams ranked 8th and 9th played-off for the right to meet the Top League team ranked 6th in the second round.

    So Kintetsu and NEC progressed to the second round.

    Second round

    The Top League team ranked 5th played-off against the winner of the teams ranked 7th and 10th, and the Top League team ranked 6th played-off against the winner of the teams ranked 8th and 9th. The two winning second round teams advanced to the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

    So Toyota and Yamaha advanced to the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.

    Challenge series

    Challenge 2

    The second-placed regional teams from East Japan, West Japan, and Kyushu played each other in a round-robin for the right to join Challenge 1.

    Mitsubishi Dynaboars, Honda Heat, and Mazda Blue Zoomers competed in Challenge 2.[2]

    Final order: 1st-Mitsubishi, 2nd-Honda, 3rd-Mazda.

    So Mitsubishi advanced to Challenge 1.

    Challenge 1

    The top-placed regional teams from East Japan, West Japan, and Kyushu were joined by the Challenge 2 winner to play each other in a round-robin. The teams ranked 1st and 2nd in Challenge 1 were automatically promoted to the 2013–14 Top League. With the Top League expanding from 14 to 16 teams there was no automatic relegation. The teams ranked 3rd and 4th from Challenge 1 went through to the promotion and relegation play-offs against the Top League 14th and 13th teams respectively.

    Kubota Spears, Toyota Industries Shuttles, Coca Cola West Red Sparks and Mitsubishi Dynaboars competed in Challenge 1.[2]

    Final order: 1st-Coca-Cola, 2nd-Kubota, 3rd-Toyata Industries, 4th-Mitsubishi.

    So Coca-Cola and Kubota were promoted to the Top League for the following season. Toyota Industries and Mitsubishi advanced to the promotion and relegation play-offs.

    Promotion and relegation play-offs

    The Top League teams ranked 14th and 13th played-off against the Challenge 1 teams ranked 3rd and 4th respectively, for the right to be included in the Top League for the following season.

    So Toyota Industries was promoted, Sanix was relegated, and NTT remained in the Top League for the next season.

    End of season awards

    Awards for the Top League season, including the Best XV, were chosen by a panel of members of the media, coaches and captains. The Best XV for the 2012-13 season was spread across six different clubs.[3]

    Team Awards

    Award Winner
    Top League winners: Suntory Sungoliath
    Fair Play award: Fukuoka Sanix Blues
    Best fans: Kobelco Steelers

    Individual awards

    Award Winner
    Top League MVP: Australia George Smith (Suntory Sungoliath)
    Rookie award: Japan Kohei Yoshida (Toyota Verblitz)
    Most tries: Japan Akihito Yamada (Panasonic Wild Knights)
    Top scorer: Japan Ayumu Goromaru (Yamaha Jubilo)
    Best kicker: Japan Ayumu Goromaru (Yamaha Jubilo)
    Best referee: Japan Taizo Hirabayashi
    Playoffs MVP: Samoa Tusi Pisi (Suntory Sungoliath)
    Special prize: Japan Hirotoki Onozawa (Suntory Sungoliath)
    First player to score 100 Top League tries

    Team of the season

    # Winner
    1. Japan Yoshimitsu Yasue (Kobelco Steelers)
    2. Japan Yusuke Aoki (Suntory Sungoliath)
    3. Japan Kensuke Hatakeyama (Suntory Sungoliath)
    4. Japan Hitoshi Ono (Toshiba Brave Lupus)
    5. Japan Shinya Makabe (Suntory Sungoliath)
    6. Australia George Smith (Suntory Sungoliath)
    7. Japan Michael Leitch (Toshiba Brave Lupus)
    8. Japan Takashi Kikutani (Toyota Verblitz)
    9. Japan Atsushi Hiwasa (Suntory Sungoliath)
    10. Japan Kosei Ono (Suntory Sungoliath)
    11. Japan Akihito Yamada (Panasonic Wild Knights)
    12. Samoa Male Sa'u (Yamaha Jubilo)
    13. South Africa Jaque Fourie (Kobelco Steelers)
    14. Japan Hirotoki Onozawa (Suntory Sungoliath)
    15. Japan Ayumu Goromaru (Yamaha Jubilo)

    References

    1. ↑ "2012/13 Top League". The Rugby Archive.
    2. 1 2 "Japan - Top League Challenge 2012/13". rugbyarchive.net. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
    3. ↑ "Rugby in Japan Newsletter Volume 10, No.5". Rugby International. 6 February 2013. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.

    External links


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