The huge name players you probably didn't know played in the Japanese Top League
The Top League has been in ascendancy over the last few years, attracting star names away from Super Rugby with financial leverage that some southern hemisphere sides can only dream of.
As a result, the quality of the league has been rising and it is beginning to knock loudly on the door of the world’s elite club competitions.
We take a look at some of the star players plying their trade in Japan and why the Top League shouldn’t be considered a second-tier competition anymore.
George Smith and Matt Giteau, Suntory Sungoliath
These two Australian veterans have now made their mark in Super Rugby, Europe and Japan, as they help spearhead their side’s perfect campaign to date, having won all seven of their games so far this season. Smith is actually in his second stint with the club, having previously represented them between 2011 and 2014, before spells at Lyon and Wasps.
The Tokyo-based side aren’t just going after experienced players, either, with young Reds centre Campbell Magnay also on their roster.
Adam Ashley-Cooper, Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers
After two seasons in France with Bordeaux-Bègles, Ashley-Cooper made the move to Kobe this past offseason. The versatile back adds to the ever-growing contingent of Australian players plying their trade in Japan, not to mention topping up their post-rugby retirement funds.
Juan Smith and Wycliff Palu, Toyota Verblitz (Jason Jenkins)
Two wily old back rowers, Smith and Palu bring over 120 combined international caps of experience to Toyota, where they play under the tutelage of Rugby World Cup-winning coach Jake White. Palu arrived on the back of 11 years with the Waratahs, whilst Smith spent the majority of his four previous years dominating European rugby with Toulon.
Like Suntory, Toyota have also targeted talented youngsters, with South Africa’s Jason Jenkins a valuable tool in their engine room.
Elton Jantjies and Amanaki Mafi, NTT Shining Arcs
The Springboks’ current fly-half and a talismanic Japanese international that has lit up both the Premiership and Super Rugby in recent seasons. Both players have Super Rugby contracts and will be returning to South Africa and Australia respectively in the new year, but they are valuable contributors, even without much of an offseason.
Jantjies’ talents aren’t always appreciated in South Africa, but they are in Japan
Liam Messam, Richard Kahui, Cory Jane and Michael Leitch, Toshiba Brave Lupus
Where other teams have recruited heavily from Australia and South Africa, Toshiba, based in Tokyo, have gone all-in on Kiwis. Messam, Kahui and Jane are all Rugby World Cup winners and still have plenty to offer, especially as they are now out of the All Blacks’ frame.
Leitch, like Mafi, is another talismanic figure for the Japanese national team and alongside Messam gives Toshiba one of the most prolific back rows in the competition.
Jaco Kriel and Lionel Mapoe, Kubota Spears
Kriel and Mapoe might not be household names in the international arena right now, but anyone who has watched the last few Super Rugby seasons knows that they are game-winners. The weakness of the Rand and the lack of money in the South African game has certainly been to the benefit of Kubota.
Heinrich Brüssow, Ryan Kankowski and Warren Whiteley, NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes
An all-back Springbok back row such as this one is not to be sniffed at in any competition.
Brüssow, who has been with the club for four years now, is leaving in January to join Northampton Saints in the Premiership, but he has been one of the premiere fetchers in world rugby during his time in Osaka, whilst Whiteley has risen to the pinnacle of the Springboks, captaining his national side earlier this year.
David Pocock, Digby Ioane, Berrick Barnes and Shota Horie, Panasonic Wild Knights
No one needs to be told about the abilities of Pocock, who is widely regarded as the best openside flanker in the game when fit, whilst Ioane has shown great form in Japan, following two years in Paris with Stade Français.
As for Barnes, he’s spent the last four years with Panasonic, after spells with the Reds and Waratahs, and at 31 years of age, still has plenty to offer in the Top League.
Horie is another influential Japanese player and starring member of the Sunwolves in Super Rugby.
Geoff Parling, Jacques Potgieter and Andre Taylor, Munakata Sanix Blues
Parling showed last season with Exeter that he still has what it takes at the highest level, whilst Potgieter has been one of the more underrated back rowers in Super Rugby over the last three seasons.
Taylor was once a standout full-back for the Hurricanes and the New Zealand U20 side, but has been spent the last four years bringing his counter-attacking wizardry to the Kinetsu Liners. Young South African centre André Esterhuizen is also on the books in Munakata.
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
2 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments