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 culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: ) – previously known as the HITO-Communications Sunwolves for sponsorship reasons – were a professional

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 ...

team and

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 representative team in SANZAAR's international Super Rugby competition. The team was based in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, but also played some home matches in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. They made their debut in Super Rugby in 2016. In March 2019, it was announced that 2020 would be the final season for the Sunwolves, after failing to negotiate a contract due to financial considerations. With the suspension of the 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and the Sunwolves being declined entry into the replacement

Super Rugby AU Super Rugby AU, formerly named the Harvey Norman Super Rugby AU for sponsorship purposes, was a rugby union competition organised by Rugby Australia. The competition was created to supplant the 2020 Super Rugby season, which had been suspended ...

competition in Australia due to various factors, the team officially dissolved on 1 June 2020.

History

Inclusion in Super Rugby

Since its launch in 1996, the

SANZAR SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby; previously known as SANZAR) is the body which oversees Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union. SANZAAR meets annually and is composed of the CEOs from ...

-organised Super Rugby competition (previously known as Super 12 and Super 14) was limited to teams from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In 2011, it was announced that SANZAR would expand its international Tri Nations competition to include

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, which resulted in that competition being rebranded as The Rugby Championship. This led to rumours that Argentina would also seek to have teams included in the Super Rugby competition and SANZAR confirmed that they would explore expansion to other regions in future. However, since SANZAR sold the existing Super Rugby package to its broadcasters for the period 2011–15, it meant that no changes to the format would be permitted until the 2016 season. In 2013,

CEO Greg Peters announced that Super Rugby would be expanded from the 2016 season onwards, adding that South African franchise the would be one of the expansion teams. In early 2014, SANZAR confirmed that Super Rugby would be increased from 15 to 18 teams starting from the 2016 season, with Argentine side getting one of the additional spots. It was confirmed that both Argentina and the 18th team would participate in the South African Conference. Asia emerged as the preferred destination for the final licence and

and

emerged as the main contenders to get the franchise. With a number of factors counting in Japan's favour – such as their domestic professional league (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 ...

) increasingly being able to attract big-name foreign players, the country being awarded the hosting of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the Japanese national team breaking into the top ten of the

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

rankings for the first time in their history in 2014 – they were subsequently granted the licence for the 18th franchise in October 2014 – with an agreement reached that

would host three of their home matches each season at the Singapore Sports Hub. The new expanded format and three new teams were formally approved by the SANZAR Executive Committee in November 2014. In April 2015, the JRFU established a corporation called Japan Super Rugby Association that would manage the operations of the team. A number of key appointments were also made; Yoshitaka Tashiro was appointed as chairman, Yuichi Ueno as the CEO and on the playing side, the Japan national team's head coach Eddie Jones was appointed as the director of rugby for the team. In May 2015, a website was launched to ask fans for team name suggestions. However, several doubts were raised against Japan's ability to set up the team on time. In August 2015, Eddie Jones announced that he would leave his role as director of rugby amid speculation linking him to the vacant head coach position. Subsequent media reports stated that governing body

were exploring alternative plans for the 2016 Super Rugby competition which excluded the Japanese team, but the JRFU commented shortly after, confirming that they have met SANZAR's requirements by contracting players and other personnel by their end-of-August deadline. The validity of the player list submitted was questioned, with many players included not "generally associated with the national team". There were also suggestions that

teams requested that their players' appearances be limited in Super Rugby and that Top League matches would be prioritised. However, they were included in the Super Rugby fixture list that came out on 28 September 2015 and on 5 October 2015, it was announced that the team would be known as the Sunwolves.

Name

In May 2015, a website was launched to ask fans for team name suggestions. This was initially scheduled to be revealed at the end of July 2015, before being postponed to August. On 5 October 2015, it was announced that the team would be known as the Sunwolves. This name was chosen from 3,320 entries and is a combination of the "Land of the Rising Sun" and the wolf, which was chosen to represent bravery, strength and an ethos of teamwork. The team's logo was also launched on the same date. On 15 January 2016, the Sunwolves announced that they would be known as the HITO-Communications Sunwolves following a sponsorship agreement.

Future

In March 2019, the Japanese Rugby Football Union announced the 2020 season would be the Sunwolves' last in Super Rugby after failing to negotiate a contract to play after that year for financial reasons.

Season summaries

The following table summarises the Sunwolves' results in Super Rugby: Legend: PF = Points for, PA = Points against, Pos = Log position.

Kit history

The Sunwolves have played in the following kits since their inception:

Stadium

Sunwolves home games are split between

Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium (also called Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium) is a rugby union stadium located in the Aoyama district of central Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List ...

in Tokyo, Japan and

Singapore National Stadium The Singapore National Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Opened on 30 June 2014, it was constructed on the site of the former National Stadium, which was closed in 2007 and demolished in 2010. The 55,000-seat facility s ...

, Singapore.

Staff

Final squad

The squad for the 2020 Super Rugby season:

Coaching staff

The following coaching team was appointed for the 2020 Super Rugby season:

List of head coaches

References

External links

*
JRFU website
{{Rugby union in Japan Sports teams in Tokyo Rugby union in Singapore Super Rugby teams 2015 establishments in Japan Rugby clubs established in 2015 Rugby union clubs disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Japan