The 2017–18 Top League was the 15th season of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

's top-tier domestic

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

competition, the

Top League Japan Rugby League One (formerly the Top League) is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by absorbing the ...

. The tournament was won by

Suntory Sungoliath Tokyo Sungoliath (formerly known as Suntory Sungoliath) is owned by the Suntory beverage company and is one of the Japanese rugby union teams in the Top League. The team is based in Fuchū, Tokyo, as is their local rival Toshiba Brave Lupus. The ...

for the fifth time, beating

Panasonic Wild Knights Saitama Wild Knights (formerly Panasonic Wild Knights) is a Japanese rugby union team formerly based in Ōta city, Gunma prefecture which plays in the Top League. Inspired by Tony Brown at fly half (though he was not captain), it dominated the l ...

12–8 in the final played on 13 January 2018.

Kintetsu Liners Hanazono Kintetsu Liners rugby team are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kintetsu Corporation which was founded in 1929. They have won the All-Japan Championship three times as an amateur team. Their home is at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Hig ...

were automatically relegated to the second-tier

Top Challenge League The Top Challenge League was a professional rugby union competition in Japan. It was the second-highest level of rugby competition in the country and is a companies league; all the teams are owned by major companies and the players are generally e ...

competition for

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes Osaka is a Japanese rugby union team owned by NTT DoCoMo. They qualified for the 2011–12 season and finished 12th place overall. The team rebranded in 2022, ahead of the rebranding of the Top League to the Japan Rugb ...

were also relegated after losing in their relegation play-off match.

Competition rules

In January 2017, the JRFU announced that the Top League competition would be held earlier in the year, in order to aid the Japanese

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

franchise the

Sunwolves The Sunwolves (Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or ...

' preparations for the following season. The sixteen Top League teams would be divided into two conferences for the first stage of the competition; each team would play the seven other teams in their conferences once, plus an extra six matches against teams in the opposite conferences for a total of thirteen matches. All sixteen teams will then progress to a play-off stage; the top two teams in each conference will advance to the title play-offs, the next two teams in each conference to the 5th-place play-offs, the next two teams in each conference to the 9th-place play-offs and the bottom two teams in each conference to the 13th-place play-offs, which will determine the final positions for the season. The title play-offs will also double as the

All-Japan Rugby Football Championship The All-Japan Rugby Football Championship (日本ラグビーフットボール選手権大会 ''Nihon Ragubi- Futtobo-ru Senshuken Taikai'') is played at the end of the season and is doubling as the title playoff in the Top League. The first champ ...

, which would no longer include university teams. The team that finishes 16th will be automatically relegated to the 2018 Top Challenge League, while the other three teams in the 13th-place play-off will all play in relegation play-off matches.

Teams

The following teams took part in the 2017–18 Top League competition: *

won the 2016–17 Top League Challenge 1 series to win promotion back to the Top League after a one-season absence.

First stage

Standings

The final standings for the 2017–18 Top League First Stage were:

Matches

The 2017–2018 Top League fixtures are:

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

Second stage

Standings

The final standings for the 2017–18 Top League are:

Title play-offs

The title play-offs also double up as the 55th

5th-place play-offs

9th-place play-offs

13th-place play-offs

Promotion and relegation

Honda Heat Mie Honda Heat is a Japanese rugby union team based in Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The owner of the club is Honda Motor. (Suzuka is known for the Suzuka Circuit and the presence of car companies.) They play in the Japan Rugby League One, ...

was promoted to the 2018–19 Top League as champions of the 2017 Top Challenge League, replacing the 16th-placed

. In addition, there were three promotion/relegation play-offs for three places in the 2018–19 Top League. The teams ranked 13th, 14th and 15th in the Top League played off against the teams ranked 4th, 3rd and 2nd in the 2017 Top Challenge League respectively. Hino Red Dolphins beat

20–17 to replace them in the Top League for 2018–19, with latter being relegated to the Top Challenge League.

Coca-Cola Red Sparks The Coca-Cola Red Sparks ( ja, コカ・コーラレッドスパークス) was a Japanese company-owned rugby union team based in Fukuoka city, Kyūshū. The team was initially founded as Kitakyushu Coca-Cola and then changed its name to Coca- ...

and

Munakata Sanix Blues , formerly ''Fukuoka Sanix Blues'' and ''Fukuoka Sanix Bombs'', was a Japanese rugby union team based in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Founded in April 1994 (Heisei 6), the team rose rapidly through the Kyūshū leagues and was in the Top ...

retained their places in the Top League for 2018–19, with the former drawing against

Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars also known as Mitsubishi Juko Sagamihara Rugby Club, are a Japanese rugby union team based in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The owner of this club is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The club was founded in 1981. It ...

and the latter beating

Kyuden Voltex Kyuden Voltex is a Japanese rugby team owned by Kyushu Electric Power Co. (Kyūshū Denryoku). The nickname "Voltex" is a conflation of "Voltage" and "Techniques" and was decided after the team won promotion to the Top League. The team is based ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Top League Japan Rugby League One

Competition rules

Teams

First stage

Standings

Matches

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

Second stage

Standings

Title play-offs

5th-place play-offs

9th-place play-offs

13th-place play-offs

Promotion and relegation

See also

References