Toyota Verblitz

Toyota Verblitz
トヨタ自動車ヴェルブリッツ

Full name	Toyota Verblitz
Union	Japan Rugby Football Union
Founded	1941
Location	Toyota, Aichi, Japan
Ground(s)	Mizuho Rugby Stadium (Capacity: 15,000)
Director of Rugby	Steve Hansen
Coach(es)	Ben Herring
Captain(s)	Kaito Shigeno
League(s)	Japan Rugby League One
2022	5th
1st kit 2nd kit

Toyota Verblitz is a Japanese rugby union team in the Japan Rugby League One. Verblitz is a portmanteau of verde (Spanish and Portuguese for 'green') and blitz (German for 'lightning'). The team is owned by Toyota Motor Corporation and is not to be confused with the Toyota Industries Shuttles rugby team, owned by Toyota Industries. It shares Toyota Stadium in the city of Toyota, Aichi with the football club Nagoya Grampus which also used to be owned by Toyota Motors.

Slogan for 2006 season: 克己　Kokki (Self-Control)

Honours

• All-Japan Championship
  • Champions: 1969, 1968, 1987
  • Runners-up: 2007

Results

Verblitz (surprisingly given the team's pedigree) failed to make the cut for the first season of the Top League (2003-4) but entered the Top League in the second season and were a contender for the second Microsoft Cup. They lost the Japan Championship final on February 27, 2005, to NEC Green Rockets 13–17.

Current squad

The Toyota Verblitz squad for the 2023 season is:

Toyota Verblitz squad
Props Shunsuke Asaoka Runya Che Yoto Ioki Yusuke Kizu Shogo Miura Ryunosuke Momoji Gaku Shimizu Yuji Takei Hookers Yoshikatsu Hikosaka Ryusei Kato Toshikazu Nobeyama Locks Daichi Akiyama Michael Allardice Louis Conradie Mitsuru Furukawa Ryusei Koike Joe Launchbury Ryoma Nishimura	Loose Forwards Pieter-Steph du Toit Masato Furukawa Kazuki Himeno Fetuani Lautaimi Olive Taufa Kyo Yoshida Scrum-halves Kenta Fukuda Ryang Jong-Chu Kaito Shigeno Kaisei Tamura Fly-halves Tiaan Falcon Rintaro Maruyama	Centres Charlie Lawrence Yuki Okada Male Sa'u Keita Suzuki Rob Thompson Vatilai Tuidraki Will Tupou Yuichiro Wada Dick Wilson Shuhei Yamaguchi Wingers Jamie Henry Masakatsu Hikosaka Jone Nabetelevu Dai Ozawa Taichi Takahashi Fullbacks Willie le Roux Takemichi Nakano Viliame Tuidraki
(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped

Former players

• Troy Flavell - lock (now in France with Bayonne)
• Tamaiti Horua - No. 8 (formerly Brumbies), now Western Force in 2008 season
• Orene Aii
• Filo Tiatia - No. 8 (now in Wales with the Ospreys}
• Dominic Day 2016 - Lock (Now playing for Saracens in the (English Premiership)

External links

• Toyota Verblitz - official site