Sunwolves

Sunwolves
Union JRFU
Founded 2015
Location Tokyo, Japan
Ground(s) Chichibunomiya Stadium, Tokyo
Singapore Sports Hub, Singapore
Chairman Yuichi Ueno
CEO Yuji Watase
Coach(es) Filo Tiatia
Captain(s) Shota Horie
Most caps Shinnosuke Kakinaga,
Ed Quirk,
Yu Tamura and
Riaan Viljoen (15)
Top scorer Tusi Pisi (105)
Most tries Akihito Yamada (9)
League(s) Super Rugby
2016 4th (Africa 1 Conference)
8th (South African Group)
18th (overall)
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
super-japanrugby.com/en
Union website
jrfu.org
Current season

The Sunwolves (Japanese: サンウルブズ) – currently known as the HITO-Communications Sunwolves for sponsorship reasons – are a professional rugby union team and is Japan's representative team in SANZAAR's international Super Rugby competition. The team is based in Tokyo, Japan, but will also play some home matches in Singapore. They made their debut in Super Rugby in 2016.

History

Inclusion in Super Rugby

Since its launch in 1996, the SANZAR-organised Super Rugby competition (previously known as Super 12 and Super 14) was limited to teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In 2011, it was announced that SANZAR would expand its international Tri Nations competition to include Argentina, which resulted in that competition being rebranded as The Rugby Championship.[1] This led to rumours that Argentina would also seek to have teams included in the Super Rugby competition[2][3] 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.[4]

In 2013, SANZAR CEO Greg Peters announced that Super Rugby would be expanded from the 2016 season onwards, adding that South African franchise the Kings would be one of the expansion teams.[5] In early 2014, SANZAR confirmed that Super Rugby would be increased from 15 to 18 teams starting from the 2016 season, with Argentine side Jaguares getting one of the additional spots. It was confirmed that both Argentina and the 18th team would participate in the South African Conference.[6]

Asia emerged as the preferred destination for the final licence and Japan and Singapore emerged as the main contenders to get the franchise.[7] With a number of factors counting in Japan's favour – such as their domestic professional league (the Top League) 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 rankings for the first time in their history in 2014[8] – they were subsequently granted the licence for the 18th franchise in October 2014[9] – with an agreement reached that Singapore would host three of their home matches each season at the Singapore Sports Hub.[10] The new expanded format and three new teams were formally approved by the SANZAR Executive Committee in November 2014.[11]

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.[12] 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 Stormers head coach position.[13] Subsequent media reports stated that governing body SANZAR were exploring alternate plans for the 2016 Super Rugby competition which excluded the Japanese team,[14] 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.[15][16] The validity of the player list submitted were questioned, with many players included not "generally associated with the national team". There were also suggestions that Top League teams requested that their players' appearances be limited in Super Rugby and that Top League matches would be prioritised.[17]

However, they were included in the Super Rugby fixture list that came out on 28 September 2015[18][19] and on 5 October 2015, it was announced that the team would be known as the Sunwolves.[20]

Name

The black version of the Sunwolves logo following their sponsorship deal with HITO-Communications.

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.[21] On 5 October 2015, it was announced that the team would be known as the Sunwolves.[20] This name was chosen from 3,320 entries[22] 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, as was the team's slogan "Break the Line".

On 15 January 2016, the Sunwolves announced that they would be known as the HITO-Communications Sunwolves following a sponsorship agreement.[23]

Season summaries

The following table summarises the Sunwolves' results in their Super Rugby seasons:

Competition name Season Played Won Drawn Lost PF PA Log position C R-up SF QF Coach Captain
Super Rugby 2016 15 1 1 13 293 627 18 of 18 0 0 0 0 Mark Hammett Shota Horie
Legend: PF = Points for, PA = Points against, C = Champions, R = Runners-up, SF = Semi-final appearance, QF = Qualifying final appearance.

Stadium

The Sunwolves will split their eight home matches between Japan and Singapore during the 2016 Super Rugby season. Five home games will be played at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo and three home games will be played at Singapore National Stadium.

Tokyo, Japan Kallang, Singapore
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium Singapore National Stadium
Capacity: 27,188 Capacity: 55,000

Staff

Current squad

For player movements before and during the 2017 season, see List of 2016–17 Super Rugby transfers § Sunwolves.

The following final 39-man Sunwolves squad for the 2016 Super Rugby season was announced on 22 February 2016:[24]

Sunwolves Super Rugby squad

Props

Hookers

Locks

Loose forwards

Scrum-halves

Fly-halves

Centres

Wingers

Fullbacks

(c) Denotes team captain and Bold denotes internationally capped.

Coaching staff

The following coaching team was appointed for the 2016 Super Rugby season:[25][26]

Name Title
Mark Hammett Head coach
Nathan Mauger Assistant coach (defence and counter attack)
Atsushi Tanabe Assistant coach (backs and skills)
Filo Tiatia Assistant coach (forwards)

See also

References

  1. ↑ ""The Rugby Championship" to replace Tri Nations". rugby.com.au. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "Super Rugby may accept Argentinian teams in 2016". Guardian. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "Pichot: Argentina in Super Rugby is a no brainer". SuperXV. 23 August 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Super Rugby going global". Sydney Daily Telegraph. 11 February 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  5. ↑ "SANZAR boss Greg Peters confirms South Africa will get a sixth Super Rugby franchise from 2016". Herald Sun. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  6. ↑ "Search begins for 18th Super Rugby team" (Press release). SANZAR. 2 May 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Singapore and Japan still in a race for 18th team". SuperXV. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "Brave Blossoms break into the top ten". Asian Rugby Football Union. 24 June 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "Super Rugby: Japan chosen to host new franchise from 2016". BBC. 24 October 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Japan's entry into Super Rugby is 'dream come true'". JRFU. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "Japan and Argentina officially join Super Rugby" (Press release). SANZAR. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "Eddie Jones lands Super Rugby role". SANZAR. 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Japan rugby coach Jones confirms departure after World Cup". Japan Today. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  14. ↑ "Super Rugby set to cut Japanese club from 2016 competition after concerns it won't field side". The Daily telegraph. Fox Sports. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  15. ↑ "Japan working to get Super Rugby tasks completed, JRFU executive says". Japan Times. 29 August 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  16. ↑ "Formation of Super Rugby team complete". The Yomiuri Shimbun. The Japan News. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  17. ↑ "Japan's Super Rugby participation remains uncertain". Kyodo. The Japan Times. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  18. ↑ "Draw released for new era of Super Rugby" (Press release). SANZAR. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "2016 Draw". SANZAR. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  20. 1 2 "Super Rugby welcomes the Sunwolves". SANZAR. 5 October 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  21. ↑ "Name-the-team Contest (Super Rugby from the 2016 Season)". JRFU. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "Japan eyes World Cup heroes for Super Rugby's Sunwolves". The Japan Times. 5 October 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  23. ↑ "Super Rugby Japanese Team SUNWOLVES Team Name & Logo Announcement "HITO-Communications SUNWOLVES"" (Press release). Sunwolves. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  24. ↑ "最終登録メンバー発表" (Press release) (in Japanese). Sunwolves. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  25. ↑ "Mark Hammett appointed HITO-Communications Sunwolves Head Coach" (Press release). Sunwolves. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  26. ↑ "Filo Tiatia and Nathan Mauger appointed Sunwolves Assistant Coach" (Press release). Sunwolves. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
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