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2006–07 Top League

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2006–07 Top League
CountriesJapan Japan
DateOctober 2006 – February 2007
ChampionsToshiba Brave Lupus

The 2006–07 Top League was the fourth season of Japan's domestic rugby union competition, the Top League. The league was expanded to from 12 to 14 teams for the 2006–07 season.

The top four teams in the league played in the Microsoft Cup which was officially integrated into the league from this season as the "Top League Play-off Tournament Microsoft Cup". The title was won by Toshiba Brave Lupus which also won the All-Japan Championship.

Teams

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Coca-Cola West Red Sparks and IBM Big Blue were promoted to the league, bringing the number of teams from 12 to 14.

Team Region
Coca-Cola West Red Sparks Fukuoka, Kyushu
Fukuoka Sanix Blues Fukuoka, Kyushu
IBM Big Blue Chiba, Kanto
Kobelco Steelers Hyogo, Kansai
Kubota Spears Chiba, Kanto
NEC Green Rockets Chiba, Kanto
Ricoh Black Rams Tokyo, Kanto
Sanyo Wild Knights Gunma, Kanto
Secom Rugguts Sayama, Saitama
Suntory Sungoliath Tokyo, Kanto
Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo, Kanto
Toyota Verblitz Aichi, Tokai
World Fighting Bull Kobe, Kansai
Yamaha Jubilo Shizuoka, Tokai

Regular season

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Final standings

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Top League Table
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points For Points Against Points Difference Try Bonus Losing Bonus Points
1 Toshiba Brave Lupus 13 12 0 1 502 234 268 11 1 60
2 Suntory Sungoliath 13 11 0 2 545 161 384 10 2 56
3 Yamaha Jubilo 13 10 1 2 379 306 73 5 1 48
4 Toyota Verblitz 13 9 0 4 448 267 181 8 3 47
5 Sanyo Wild Knights 13 8 0 5 525 321 204 8 3 43
6 Kobelco Steelers 13 8 0 5 360 306 54 8 2 42
7 NEC Green Rockets 13 7 0 6 281 321 -40 7 3 38
8 Kubota Spears 13 5 2 6 385 402 -17 5 1 30
9 Fukuoka Sanix Blues 13 5 1 7 281 423 -142 4 2 28
10 Coca-Cola West Red Sparks 13 4 0 9 267 368 -101 4 1 21
11 Ricoh Black Rams 13 4 0 9 233 371 -138 3 2 21
12 IBM Big Blue 13 2 2 9 241 503 -262 3 1 16
13 Secom Rugguts 13 2 0 11 255 449 -194 3 3 14
14 World Fighting Bull 13 1 0 12 211 481 -270 2 1 7

 • The top 4 teams qualified for the title play-offs.
 • The top 4 teams also qualified for entry into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship.
 • Teams 11 and 12 went through to the promotion and relegation play-offs against regional challengers.     
 • Teams 13 and 14 were automatically relegated.

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Four points for a win, two for a draw, one bonus point for four tries or more (BP1) and one bonus point for losing by seven or less (BP2).
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
 • Difference between points for and against
 • Total number of points for
 • Number of matches won
 • Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
 • Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled

Fixtures and results

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Title play-offs

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The top four teams in the league were Toshiba, Suntory, Yamaha, and Toyota. They played in the Microsoft Cup (2007) knock-out tournament to fight it out for the Top league title, which was officially integrated into the league from this season as the "Top League Play-off Tournament Microsoft Cup".

The cup was won by Toshiba Brave Lupus which also won the All-Japan Championship.

Semi-finals

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28 January 2007 Toshiba Brave Lupus 38–35 Toyota Verblitz Chichibu, Tokyo  
14:00

28 January 2007 Yamaha Jubilo 39–40 Suntory Sungoliath Hanazono  
14:00

Final

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4 February 2007 Toshiba Brave Lupus 14–13 Suntory Sungoliath Chichibu, Tokyo  
14:00

Top League Challenge Series

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Kyuden Voltex and Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars won promotion to the 2007–08 Top League via the 2007 Top League Challenge Series, while Honda Heat and Kintetsu Liners progressed to the promotion play-offs.

Promotion and relegation play-offs

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Two promotion/relegation matches (Irekaesen) were played with the winners qualifying for the 2007–08 Top League.

The 11th placed team from the Top League played against the 1st placed team from Challenge 2. The 12th placed team from the Top League played against the 3rd placed team from Challenge 1.


12 February 2007 IBM Big Blue 29–29 Kintetsu Liners  
14:00

12 February 2007 Ricoh Black Rams 43–24 Honda Heat  
14:00

So IBM (despite only obtaining a draw against Kinetsu), and Ricoh remained in the Top League for 2007–08.

References

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  1. ^ "2006/07 Top League". The Rugby Archive. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2022-05-26.