Honda Heat

Honda Heat
ホンダヒート
Full name Honda Heat Rugby Football Club
Union Japan Rugby Football Union
Founded 1960
Location Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Ground(s) Honda Active Land and Suzuka Sports Garden
Chairman Takanobu Ito
Coach(es) Tomoaki Fujimoto
League(s) Top League
1st kit
2nd kit

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 Top League, the top tier of the Japan's rugby union hierarchy.

In 2011–12, Honda Heat were relegated to regional events for 2012–13. Winning 2 and drawing 1 of their 13 games in the regular season.

History

Honda Motor Co. established its rugby club in 1960 at the Suzuka Factory. The team gained promotion to the Kansai A-League for the 1978 season, and then finished sixth in the seven-team competition in for that year. Honda remained a fixture in the Kansai A-League, being demoted only once (for the 1985 season) before it was renamed the Top West A-League in 2003-04 with the introduction of Japan's Top League.

Honda did not qualify for inclusion in the Top League for inaugural season—that had to wait for another six years—but the team continued to play in the Top West A-League. After winning the league in 2008-09 under New Zealander John Sherratt, Honda Heat was promoted. The team played one Top League season in 2009–10 before being demoted and another in 2011–12 before being demoted again to Top West A, where they remained for three seasons.

Honda won the Top West A-League in 2014–15 and was promoted to the once again for the 2015–16 season of Top League.

Current squad

The provisional Honda Heat squad for the 2016–17 Top League season is:[1]

Honda Heat squad

Props

  • Australia Salesi Manu
  • Japan Kiminori Moto
  • Japan Tomohiro Nishigaki
  • Japan Koshida Syouri
  • Japan Shota Takizawa
  • Japan Takashi Tanaka

Hookers

  • Japan Goki Amano
  • Japan Akito Kawamata
  • Japan Masayoshi Marumi
  • Japan Itsuki Watanabe

Locks

  • Japan Youji Akiyama
  • Japan Shunya Goto
  • Japan Yutaro Kamada
  • Australia Hugh McMeniman
  • Japan Atsushi Tsukamoto
  • Tonga Finau Tupa

Loose Forwards

  • Japan Kousuke Hattori
  • Japan Wataru Kanemoto
  • Japan Hiroto Kawasaki
  • Japan Manabu Kawazoe
  • Japan Ryota Kobayashi
  • Japan Koji Nakata
  • Fiji Tomasi Soqeta
  • South Africa Deon Stegmann

Scrum-halves

  • Japan Hisayoshi Itou
  • Japan Ryota Kayama
  • Japan Kenta Yamaji
  • South Korea Yang Young-hun

Fly-halves

  • Japan Takahiro Furuya
  • Japan Daisuke Konishi
  • Japan Yushi Nakamura
  • Japan Paku Songi

Centres

  • Japan Tomoyuki Harashima
  • Australia Malietoa Hingano
  • Japan Gu Jiyun
  • Japan Kaito Morikawa
  • Japan Ryo Morita
  • Japan Hiroto Nakata
  • Japan Takahito Takemaru

Wingers

Outside Backs

(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Coaches

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Player Profiles" 選手紹介. Honda Heat. Archived from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Hond Heat". Japon Rugby (in French). 2015. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
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