Top League Champions Cup

The Top League Champions Cup, known as the Lixil Cup and previously the Microsoft Cup, is a rugby union knockout tournament held annually in Japan to determine the Top League championship title. The Top League is the highest level of rugby competition in Japan and is an industrial league that presently consists of sixteen teams, all owned by major companies. The building materials supplier Lixil is the current naming rights partner.^[1]

Initially sponsored by Microsoft Japan, the knockout tournament was first contested by the top eight teams from the Top League in 2004. It was considered a separate competition to the Top League for the first three seasons but was officially integrated for the 2006–07 season. The number of teams was also cut to four to give a format of two semi-finals and a final, and from that time onward the winner of the knockout cup was recognised as the Top League champion.

Overall

Summary totals for all Top League championships up to and including 2015:

Team	Championships	Runners-up	Semi-final losses	Minor premierships
Toshiba Brave Lupus	5	2	4	5
Panasonic Wild Knights	3	4	3^	3
Suntory Sungoliath	3	3	2+	2
Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers	1*	0	4^	3
Yamaha Júbilo	0	2	1+	0
Kubota Spears	0	1	1	0
Toyota Verblitz	0	0	5	0
NEC Green Rockets	0*	0	2	0

Notes:

 * NEC won the 2004 Microsoft Cup but Kobe Steel was the Top League champion. These were separate competitions prior to 2007.
 ^{^} The 2004 Kobe Steel and Sanyo (Panasonic) semi-final appearances are included, although that cup was not part of the championship.
 ⁺ Yamaha was 3rd and Suntory 4th in the 2003–04 Top League championship, but these results are not counted as semi-final appearances.

Tournaments

Teams listed are those that qualified from the Top League for the title play-offs in each season. Results of the play-offs are written so that the score of the team in each row is mentioned first.

Legend
	Cup winner (knockout play-offs).		Pos = Log Position, P = Games Played, W = Games Won, D = Games Drawn, L = Games Lost, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Diff = Points Difference, TB = Try Bonus Points, LB = Losing Bonus Points, SP = Starting Points for Group Stage, Pts = Log Points, Semi = Semi-final, Refs = References
	Top League title winner.

2014 onward

Since the start of the 2013–14 season, the Top League tournament has been contested by sixteen teams. The top four advance to the play-offs to compete for the Top League Champions Cup.

For the initial league stage, the teams are placed into two pools of eight and a round-robin tournament played within each. The top four from each pool are placed into Group 1 to compete for title play-off positions, and the bottom four are placed into Group 2 to compete to avoid relegation.

The teams are given starting points based on where they finish in their pool - i.e. starting points of 4, 3, 2, or 1, for 1st through 4th respectively; and 4, 3, 2, or 1, for 5th through 8th respectively. After the second round-robin stage, the top four teams from Group 1 progress to the Top League title play-offs.

From the 2014–15 season, the knockout competition was named the Lixil Cup under a new commercial partnership.

Top League Championship play-off tournament (2014–)

Year	Cup period	Pos	Team	Top League regular season											Cup play-off results			Refs
				Pts	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TB	LB	SP	Qtr	Semi	Final
2016	9 January to 24 January	1A	Panasonic Wild Knights	31	7	6	1	0	290	137	153	5	0	–				[2]
		1B	Yamaha Jubilo	29	7	6	0	1	226	140	86	5	0	–
		2A	Toshiba Brave Lupus	26	7	5	1	1	253	100	153	4	0	–
		2B	Kobelco Steelers	27	7	5	0	2	235	137	98	5	2	–
		3A	Kintetsu Liners	23	7	5	0	2	189	193	-4	3	0	–
		3B	Toyota Verblitz	26	7	5	0	2	203	125	78	5	1	–
		4A	NTT Shining Arcs	22	7	4	0	3	190	142	48	4	2	–
		4B	Canon Eagles	25	7	5	0	2	196	142	54	4	1	–
2015	24 January to 1 February	1	Kobe Steelers	29	7	5	0	2	242	113	+129	4	1	4	—	12–41	—	[3]
		2	Panasonic Wild Knights	29	7	5	0	2	218	131	+87	5	0	4	—	50–15	30–12
		3	Toshiba Brave Lupus	28	7	5	0	2	213	147	+66	4	1	3	—	15–50	—
		4	Yamaha Júbilo	27	7	5	0	2	165	134	+31	4	1	2	—	41–12	12–30
2014	1 February to 9 February	1	Panasonic Wild Knights	36	7	7	0	0	224	105	119	4	0	4	—	55–15	45–22	[4]
		2	Suntory Sungoliath	32	7	6	0	1	261	169	92	4	0	4	—	27–19	22–45
		3	Kobe Steelers	24	7	4	0	3	223	194	29	5	1	2	—	19–27	—
		4	Toshiba Brave Lupus	23	7	4	0	3	181	151	30	2	3	2	—	15–55	—

2007 to 2013

For the 2006–07 season the tournament was expanded to fourteen teams and the Top League and Microsoft Cup competitions were combined. Only the top four teams on the regular season table progressed to title play-offs and the winner of the knockout competition was awarded both the Microsoft Cup and the Top League title.

Video referee (TMO) decisions were introduced for the 2009 Cup series. The naming rights partnership with Microsoft for the knockout competition ended after the 2009 Cup final.

Top League Championship play-off tournament (2007–2013)

Year	Cup period	Pos	Team	Top League regular season										Play-off results		Refs
				Pts	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TB	LB	Semi	Final
2009	17 February to 24 February	1	Toshiba Brave Lupus	59	13	12	0	1	563	211	+352	11	0	26–7	17–6	[5]
		2	Sanyo Wild Knights	58	13	12	0	1	584	197	+387	10	0	32–22	6–17
		3	Suntory Sungoliath	51	13	10	0	3	482	298	+184	10	1	22–32	—
		4	Kobe Steelers	43	13	9	0	4	358	300	+58	5	2	6–27	—
2008	17 February to 24 February	1	Sanyo Wild Knights	63	13	13	0	0	593	170	+423	11	0	25–21	10–14	[6]
		2	Suntory Sungoliath	53	13	10	1	2	453	229	+224	10	1	33–10	14–10
		3	Toyota Verblitz	50	13	9	1	3	452	269	+183	9	3	10–33	—
		4	Toshiba Brave Lupus	47	13	10	1	2	398	263	+135	5	2	21–25	—
2007	28 January to 4 February	1	Toshiba Brave Lupus	60	13	12	0	1	502	234	268	11	1	38–35	14–13	[7]
		2	Suntory Sungoliath	56	13	11	0	2	545	161	384	10	2	40–39	13–14
		3	Yamaha Jubilo	48	13	10	1	2	379	306	73	5	1	39–40	—
		4	Toyota Verblitz	47	13	9	0	4	448	267	181	8	3	35–38	—

2004 to 2006

For the first three seasons the competition format was a single round-robin tournament contested by twelve teams, with the team finishing top of the table winning the Top League title. The Microsoft Cup was a separate knockout competition for the top eight teams in the league.

Microsoft Cup play-off tournament (2004–2006)

Year	Cup period	Pos	Team	Top League regular season										Play-off results			Refs
				Pts	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Diff	TB	LB	Qtr	Semi	Final
2006	22 January to 5 February	1	Toshiba Brave Lupus	46	11	9	0	2	406	193	213	10	0	38–7	23–10	33–18	[8]
		2	Sanyo Wild Knights	42	11	9	0	2	416	276	140	6	0	24–40	—	—
		3	NEC Green Rockets	41	11	9	0	2	270	136	134	4	1	17–12	10–23	—
		4	Toyota Verblitz	37	11	7	0	4	431	263	168	6	3	12–17	—	—
		5	Kobe Steelers	33	11	7	0	4	284	225	59	4	1	7–38	—	—
		6	Suntory Sungoliath	32	11	6	0	5	308	241	67	6	2	35–17	44–25	18–33
		7	Yamaha Jubilo	28	11	5	0	6	328	211	117	4	4	17–35	—	—
		8	Kubota Spears	23	11	4	1	6	324	297	27	5	0	40–24	25–44	—
2005	8 February to 28 February	1	Toshiba Brave Lupus	50	11	10	0	1	463	166	297	9	1	33–13	41–0	20–6α	[9]
		2	Yamaha Jubilo	45	11	9	0	2	380	218	162	8	1	38–33	33–33β	6–20α
		3	NEC Green Rockets	44	11	9	0	2	407	253	154	7	1	16–51γ	—	—
		4	Toyota Verblitz	43	11	8	0	3	427	224	203	9	2	42–21	33–33β	—
		5	Kobe Steelers	34	11	6	0	5	326	356	-30	8	2	51–16γ	0–41	—
		6	Kubota Spears	27	11	5	0	6	277	334	-57	6	1	33–38	—	—
		7	Sanyo Wild Knights	24	11	4	0	7	346	296	50	4	4	21–41	—	—
		8	Suntory Sungoliath	24	11	4	0	7	307	282	25	4	4	13–33	—	—
2004	8 February to 22 February	1	Kobe Steelersδ	47	11	9	0	2	439	286	153	11	0	35–27	10–34	—	[10]
		2	Toshiba Brave Lupus	44	11	8	1	2	503	283	220	9	1	39–10	36–34	19–24
		3	Yamaha Jubilo	42	11	8	2	1	334	223	111	6	0	10–39	—	—
		4	Suntory Sungoliath	42	11	8	0	3	408	265	143	9	1	5–32	—	—
		5	World Fighting Bull	32	11	6	0	5	349	285	64	7	1	27–35	—	—
		6	NEC Green Rocketsδ	30	11	5	2	4	411	274	137	6	0	32–5	34–10	24–19
		7	Sanyo Wild Knights	24	11	4	1	6	319	331	-12	6	0	39–32	34–36	—
		8	Kubota Spears	22	11	4	0	9	262	362	-100	4	2	32–39	—	—

Notes:

See also

• Top League
• All-Japan Rugby Football Championship
• Japan Rugby Football Union
• Japan national rugby union team

References

External links

• JRFU Official Site (in English)
• Top League Official Site (in Japanese)
• "Microsoft Cup" (in Japanese). MSN. 2007. Archived from the original on 6 March 2007.